


Doubt

by Malygos



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-06 02:16:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 43,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13401327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malygos/pseuds/Malygos
Summary: As the box was revealed however, Fu had a moment of doubt."Only one." Fu decided, holding the Black Cat Miraculous Ring gently. "For now."Deciding that it would be far too risky to send both the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses out into the field against this new threat, Master Fu instead withholds the Ladybug Earrings until he finds a true match. In their place, he sends the Fox Necklace.This brief moment of uncertainty has consequences far beyond what he could have predicted, and Chat Noir soon falters himself, straddling the line between doing what is right, and what he wants.All the while, another threat approaches Paris, prepared to take advantage of the turmoil occurring.





	1. Origins - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel ponders the path he is committing to, while Master Fu decides against sending both the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses out in response.
> 
> Meanwhile, Marinette goes to the first day of school unhindered, and Chat Noir later finds out that his partner is not what he expected.

* * *

 

Gabriel had been thinking over this for some time, ever since January to be exact.

Adalicia, his wife and mother to his son Adrien had gone missing in Tibet. Why Tibet, he had not known at the time, only that she had gone.

He had theories, however. After finding the guide book for Tibet left behind with the brooch she had been wearing as long as he had known her, he put considerable resources to work discreetly.

In March, nearly two months after, he had found his answer in Wu Xing, a Chinese philosophy also known as the Five Elements. The peacock brooch Adalicia favoured was cited in mythology relating to the philosophy, and after more searching, one of his teams finally found it in the very country she went missing in. The Miraculous Book.

From what he had been able to understand from the images, five pieces of jewellery used in conjunction with little fairy-like magical beings would grant their chosen special powers to be used for balance and for the greater good of humanity. At the core of them laid the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, the Ying and Yang like in Taoism. These seven Miraculouses had roots in Chinese philosophies, and now he had a possible answer as to why Adalicia had went to Tibet. She was hunting for other Miraculous related items.

But what could he do? The Brooch which should house the little being never responded to him, he couldn't question it on his wife's purposes. Never had he felt so helpless.

Until in his search, he had struck gold in the form of the Butterfly Miraculous.

A team had found it in Golmud three days ago, and he had been able to activate it today.

Nooroo, the Kwami (he learned this is what they called themselves) inside, had just given him the brief summary of the Miraculouses when he had asked to see if he had missed anything out in his research.

"Many centuries ago, magic jewels bestowing extraordinary powers were created. These were... the Miraculous. Throughout history, heroes have used these jewels for the good of the human race. Two of these Miraculous are more powerful than the others; the earrings of the Ladybug, which provide the power of creation; and the ring of the Cat, which gives the power of destruction. According to legend, whoever controls both these jewels at the same time, will achieve absolute power."

He hadn't. In June, he had been able to do was trace the last known whereabouts of the current Great Guardian to somewhere in France, luckily.

The Great Guardian he learned was the one entrusted with the care of the Miraculouses, and it was his duty to help potential heroes get their closest matched Miraculous in times of need.

At that point though, his hope had turned to caution. It was the responsibility and burden of Turtle Miraculous holders to be Great Guardians according to Nooroo, similar to a line of succession.

Longevity gave them experience and knowledge, additionally the Turtle had an advantage over the Butterfly if his research was done right. If he did find the Great Guardian, open confrontation would still be too risky, even when he now had a Miraculous of his own. Gabriel was simply too inexperienced to be able to match such an opponent.

So what could he do, with only knowing his general location?

Lure him out. Or rather, the two Miraculouses he actually wanted. He'd avoid confronting the Turtle if he could help it, as much as he'd rather vent his anger and grief over his wife's disappearance to whoever it was.

She had gone to Tibet, China, home of the Miraculouses. Most likely, on the orders of that blasted Guardian, seeing as he was the one who would've given her that Brooch. And she had died there.

Missing was the current statement, but Gabriel knew in the way only a husband could, that the love of his life was dead. His quest of why she had gone had turned into revenge on the one who had sent her, which then, once Nooroo told him of the potential power from the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses combined, turned to hope. He could get her back. They could be a family again.

"I want that absolute power, Nooroo. I must have those Miraculous!"

Gabriel closed the locket bearing the picture of his wife gently.

"But nobody knows where these Miraculous are!" Nooroo told him.

Nooroo had been lost for quite some time, and did not know who or where the Great Guardian was, or even if it was still the same one. Some great tragedy had occurred the Kwami told him which resulted in many like himself, being scattered to the winds.

"I found you though, my little Nooroo. Your Miraculous… remind me of its powers again."

He did feel some affection for the little Kwami in the short time they'd known each other. When he had told Nooroo of his plan though, the creature had vehemently disagreed. But what did it know about loss, an immortal being such as itself with a plethora of equally everlasting companions? NOTHING!

He was nothing without his Adalicia. Gabriel always had the selfish wish that he would die first out of them, because he couldn't bear the thought of going through life without her. His nightmare had become reality, and he couldn't bear it.

The mansion that had previously been filled with laughter and fond memories was cold, dead. Adrien… He loved his son, but he couldn't lose him too. Yes, he and Adalicia had agreed to public schooling this year, but anything could happen to his son there! He wouldn't allow it! He couldn't.

Just like he could barely be in the presence of his son, preferring to keep at a distance. He had his mother's eyes. But they no longer shared the same warmth, the same joy. Adrien was lost and confused. He was hurting.

He was sure Adrien blamed him for Adalicia's disappearance. But how could he tell his son that she had left without warning? That she hadn't been under the usual security, that he had known nothing of the trip?

They were just excuses. He should have done better, been more aware. It was his fault.

And he'd fix it.

"The Butterfly Brooch allows you to give someone their own superpowers and to make that person your devoted follower!"

"And when it comes to luring superheroes, what could be better than creating supervillains?" Gabriel asked rhetorically.

It was the best solution he could think of, to lure out the Great Guardian. As old as they would be, they wouldn't be able to keep up with weekly attacks, though it was likely they wouldn't show regardless. Whoever it was had already shown a fondness for delegating to others.

"But master, the Miraculous are not meant to be used for evil purposes!"

Evil? Was he really evil?

Gabriel had been pondering this for a while before finding Nooroo, back when his desire for inflicting revenge had started.

If it was evil to do anything to get the love of his life back, then yes. He was evil.

"I must have this absolute power! Your Miraculous is in my control! I am your master now, and you must obey me."

Kwami always obey their holders.

"Yes, master." Nooroo drooped.

Any thoughts of regret or doubt were quenched.

For Adalicia, he would be evil. For her, he'd terrorize Paris. If she didn't approve when he got her back, if she left him, or if he was imprisoned for the rest of his life, he wouldn't care.

As long as she was alive. She had given him hope at his lowest, and had helped him build his brand and his life from the ground up. She deserved better, and now it was his turn. For her, he'd become Hawk Moth.

He looked around the empty room with grief in his eyes. After discovering their son was allergic to feathers, she had switched from incorporating them in her works, instead settling for something softer, gentler.

"Nooroo, dark wings! Rise!"

Adalicia had always liked butterflies.

* * *

"Master, the Butterfly Miraculous! I felt its aura!"

Master Fu, the Great Guardian of the Miraculouses, stroked his gray goatee with worry.

"I thought it had been lost forever…" He told his Kwami, Wayzz.

"But Master, it's a negative aura, I fear it may have gotten into the hands of a dark power!"

This was troubling. The last known Miraculous Wielder was Adalicia Agreste, and she had been missing since January. It was no coincidence then that soon after the sole active Wielder (though she had not been very public in her adult life) has gone missing that a new, evil power had arisen with the aid of the missing Butterfly Miraculous.

"We must find Nooroo and his Miraculous. If it has gotten into the wrong hands, there's no telling what evil could come upon the world!"

If they were quick, then Wayzz could follow the aura to where he had sensed it. Alas, age had taken its toll upon Fu.

"Master be reasonable, you are-"

"-Still young! I'm only one hundred and eighty six!" Fu interrupted, hiding the grimace of pain from his back that had brought him to his knees. "But you're right Wayzz. I can no longer do it alone. We'll need some help."

Walking to the gramophone which Wayzz had claimed for sleeping within, Fu pressed the two carved dragon eyes to display a panel of buttons between their open mouths. Pressing in the code resulted in the gramophone revealing a jewellery box of Miraculouses.

As the box was revealed however, Fu had a moment of doubt.

Why would an evildoer in the possession of the Butterfly Miraculous be so obvious in his use that Wayzz could sense it?

Whoever it was who had Nooroo, and if they asked the right questions, they'd know of the other Miraculouses. Why be so obvious, why bother?

 _Because he does not want to stop at just one Miraculous,_  Fu realised. Whoever it was had gone for the already experienced Wielder, and defeated Adalicia in Tibet.

He couldn't go through with his original plan, could he? After her disappearance he had kept a close eye on her son, to watch over the boy just in case, and Fu could tell he was worthy of a Miraculous. He and Plagg would get along so well. It was only a matter of finding the ying to their yang, but was that truly the best option?

There was no question of it; Nooroo, however willingly, had told of the Miraculouses. There would be no other reason for what Fu could feel in his bones to be a public reveal of power. Two specific Miraculouses that Nooroo would have mentioned would have been the Creation and Destruction duo. Ladybug and Black Cat. If both of them were to be revealed, with no experience under their belts, they could be easy pickings for this villain in the shadows.

"Only one." Fu decided, holding the Black Cat Miraculous Ring gently. "For now."

"But Master! They have never been apart, every Black Cat has had a-" but Wayzz protesting was cut off.

"I know this, and so will this dark power." Fu reasoned. "They'll be expecting it. It's a risk we cannot afford, if both of them were to fall into the wrong hands…"

"I don't like it." Wayzz said quietly. "And neither will Plagg."

"I know, I know." Fu sighed. "But whoever it is managed to beat Adalicia and Duusu with their years of experience. What we need is time, more than anything else. More can be, and probably will be chosen. We need time for them to build up experience, and time to find our enemy."

"Then who will go with Plagg, if not Tikki?" Wayzz questioned. Following his Master's eyes, the kwami groaned.

"You really think  _that_ will be a good idea? Both of them together without oversight? She'll just mess with Plagg's boy!"

"Her partner is missing." Fu said quietly. "I think that'll be good enough encouragement to stay on task. I won't keep Plagg apart from Tikki for too long, either. Just until I find the right chosen for her."

"And what of Trixx, then? You have someone in mind?"

Fu smiled, remembering one of his visits in January to the nearby zoo where a young girl, daughter of one of the zookeepers, who had taken the time out of her day to help him to the new birds of prey enclosure whilst looking after two little hellions. Fu hadn't actually been testing the girl, rather he had simply forgotten about the new addition until recently. It had been built in nineteen eighty-three but for a one hundred and eighty three year old man, time eventually blended together.

She had handled the squealing children with good grace, weaving a story as she went while acting tour-guide for him to all the exhibits they passed. She had spoken with a confidence and surety most of her peers generally lacked at that age, along with a sly wit and rather cunning promises to the twin terrors.

Trixx would love her.

* * *

"Marinette! Your alarm's been going off for fifteen minutes, you're going to be late for your first day back at school!"

A dreary and very much still half asleep Marinette Dupain-Cheng peaked out from under the covers of her bead.

"Coming mum!" She groaned out in reply.

At breakfast Marinette clumsily knocked over the milk, cereal and even managed to bump the fruit to collide with some yogurt. Frankly, she had no clue where the clumsiness came from as her mother Sabine and her father Tom were equally surefooted and boasted nimble fingers. It was just the luck of the draw, a bad roll on the genetic dice; and bad luck was something Marinette was sure she had in spades.

Indeed, like she had glumly told her mother at breakfast, she was sure Chloé Bourgeois would be in her class for the fourth year in a row.

Daughter of the Mayor of Paris, Chloé was the epitome of a spoiled rich girl. Along with her lackey, Sabrina Raincomprix, they'd made school an entirely un-enjoyable experience for Marinette.

Regardless of the possibility of Chloé and Sabrina's presence, Marinette was determined to make both a good impression on any new classmates and reaffirm friendliness with others she already knew through the wonder that was macarons.

After voicing the idea with her father the night before, Tom had quickly agreed to the proposal to start the new year with confectionary for her class, and had generously added it to the list of baking goods done that morning.

After nearly being hit by a car as soon as she left the bakery, the day started looking up for her! She had arrived early (for once!) and was the third to arrive, discounting Miss Bustier. Though Nino had always been an early riser.

"Marinette?" The red haired woman clarified, surprised. "You're early! Well, I hope this is a new standard I'll be seeing!"

Marinette gave a small laugh in response, electing to just to send the teacher a nervous smile. Before moving to seat herself, she had a sudden stroke of brilliance to counter her clumsiness.

"Ah, Miss Bustier, could you, um…"

"Yes, Marinette?" She encouraged curiously.

"Could you take these and er, give them out? I'd do it but you know how I'm so, so-"

Her teacher gave a gentle laugh. "It's no problem Marinette I understand completely." She smiled, taking the yellow box carefully and set it on her desk. "Well since you're here early for once, you get first pick!"

Humming quietly, Marinette decided to take her usual seat in the second row.

"Speaking of seats, Nino, why don't you take a seat in the front row this year?"

Nino gave much grumbling over this, but still done as asked. They both knew why she didn't want him sitting at the back, where it was harder to tell if he was working or more often than not, listening to music on his headphones.

Nervously Marinette sat, messing with her stationary. She was praying that Chloé wasn't in her class so she could look forward to a bully-free year. Alas, luck was not on her side. A few minutes after, the blonde girl did indeed enter the classroom with Sabrina in tow, and automatically zeroed in on her.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

 _Ugh. Here we go again,_ Marinette groaned.

"That's  _my_ seat." Chloé stated with all the surety of a brat.

"But Chloé, this has always been my seat." Marinette replied half heartedly. She knew how this was going to go down: Chloé getting her way, again.

"Not anymore!" Sabrina laughed. "New year, new seats!"

"So why don't you hop on down there where all your friends are?" Chloé simpered, pointing to the empty front row on the right. "Listen. Adrien's arriving today and since that's going to be his seat," Chloé gestured to the empty space beside Nino that happened to be in front of Marinette, " _this_ is going to be  _my_ seat. Get it?"

Meanwhile, Marinette was baffled. She thought she knew all of Chloé's sycophants, but apparently not. Then again, this was a boy, so…

"Who's Adrien?" She dared to ask.

Chloé and Sabrina laughed in response. "Can you believe she doesn't know who Adrien is? What rock have you been living under?"

"He's only a famous model." Sabrina answered Marinette's question smugly.

"And I am his best friend." Chloé added.

 _Well, that answers the question of what he's like,_ Marinette thought glumly.

"Go on, move!"

Sighing to herself, Marinette gathered her stationary, keeping her eyes on her feet as she swapped to the front row.

 _There's still hope,_ she thought to herself.  _Still hope for a good year._

A minute later after the class had caught up with friends they hadn't seen in a while or classmates they hadn't since before the summer, Miss Bustier began talking.

"For those of you who-"

"Sorry I'm late!"

The door was quickly opened and snapped shut, and for a brief moment Marinette thought it was the Adrien boy Chloé was talking about. That was, until, she saw the clearly female dark skinned girl with reddish-brown wavy hair and glasses.

"It's quite alright." Miss Bustier answered, smiling lightly. "It's the first day, so it can be forgiven. Take a seat."

Not wanting to disturb the teacher any further, the girl quickly sat in the first available seat, the one beside Nino. As Chloé gaped and fumed silently, the teacher continued.

* * *

Elsewhere, an anxious blond boy was hurrying to the steps of the school, eyes darting to and fro, occasionally checking behind.

Only, he was looking for people on foot, not ones just leaving cars.

"Adrien please reconsider, you know what your father wants!"

He cringed momentarily as he just made contact with the first step.

"But this is what  _I_ want to do!" He replied sharply, making to continue his way in.

That was until he heard groaning to his right.

An old man on hands and knees was reaching for a stick just out of reach. Not having to even think about it, Adrien Agreste made it his priority to ensure he was okay before doing anything else.

"Thank you, young man." The short greying man smiled gratefully as Adrien helped him to his feet.

Returning the smile, he returned to continue what he had been doing; only to find his way blocked.

It wasn't fair. Everything in his life was dictated for him without input. What he wore, how he ate, when he slept, who he talked to… Nothing was a result of his own decision. More than anything, he desired the freedom, the excitement and the socialisation that public school would bring. Chloé had told him so much about it.

"I just wanna go to school like everybody else. What's so wrong with that?" He pleaded, walking to his father's assistant Nathalie. Seeing her expression not change, he sighed. "Please don't tell my father about all this."

Silently, his bodyguard whom he had nicked named 'The Gorilla' gently pressed a hand to his back and guided him to the waiting car.

Unseen to the trio, Master Fu watched, his task done. Now all that was left to do was to see if his gamble paid off.

* * *

"Those of you who have P.E., Mr. D'Argencourt is expecting you at the stadium. The rest of you can head over to the library."

Marinette chatted quietly with Juleka and Rose. Juleka was a quiet presence but Marinette was already familiar with how she didn't often speak up, and so didn't mind if it was mostly her and Rose doing the talking. The petite blonde was just as lively and sweet as ever, gushing about Marinette's new earrings: a tiny cat on each made of silver with two amethysts each, one representing the head and the other the body. It was what her parents had gotten her for her fifteenth birthday.

It was nice starting the school year off with friends to talk to, the snacks she had brought had certainly helped her efforts.

"Kim!"

Nearly all the heads turned to see what had happened. Ivan was clearly angry with a note gripped tightly in his hand while Kim was grinning.

"Ivan, what is going on?" Their teacher asked, baffled.

"It's Kim! I'm so gonna get...!"

"Ivan, go to the principal's office." Miss Bustier snapped immediately, seeing his raised fist. This was not going to happen on the first day back, not if she could help it.

* * *

Elsewhere, Hawk Moth stood in the empty domed room with a single window devoid if anything but himself and a kaleidoscope of butterflies.

"Negative emotions. This is perfect. Just what I need. Anger, sadness... Burn a hole into his heart, my horrible akuma."

One of the fluttering bugs lands in the man's open palm to which he encloses with the other hand. Dark purple energy engulfs it, and the pure white that previously coloured it bleeds away for pitch black and luminous purple. "Fly away, my little akuma, and evilize him!"

* * *

Without warning, the table Marinette, Rose and Juleka were sat at shook as a quake ran through the school. Juleka, the only one of the three to have remained seated, managed to grab Rose and successfully stopped her from thumping her head off the unforgiving floor, while Marinette flopped on her derriere with a yelp.

They followed the few others in the library who hadn't made to leave to the cameras showing the outside entrances, which revealed a large creature resembling a stone golem.

"No way." Juleka gasped, her eyes wide.

" KIMMM!" The beast bellowed, taking those watching by surprise.

"W-was that Ivan?!" Rose squeaked.

"It did sound like him." Marinette answered, just as shocked.

None of them noticed the lone excited newbie to the school leave hastily.

* * *

"Who was the first president of the fifth French Republic?"

"Everyone thinks it was De Gaulle," an extremely bored Adrien replied drolly, "but it was actually Rene Couti before the first elections."

"Excellent, Adrien."

 _Excellent,_ the teenager couldn't help the wave of bitterness.  _I guess my father delegates everything for her to do in relation to me, including praise._

"Give me a minute, would you, Nathalie?"

Adrien snorted quietly.  _Speak of the Devil…_

"You are NOT going to school. I already told you."

A pained glance at his father's assistant's suddenly downturned face revealed she had indeed told him.

"But father-!"

"Everything you need is right here where I can keep an eye on you." Gabriel continued ruthlessly, "I will not have you outside in that dangerous world."

"It's not dangerous, father." Adrien tried to reason. "I'm always stuck in here by myself. Why can't I go out and make friends just like everybody else?"

"Because you are not like everyone else! You are my son! Continue."

 _Typical of him,_ Adrien thought silently.  _Says his piece and leaves before he can hear anything against it, not that it would have mattered._

As Nathalie approached, the hurt and crippling loneliness he had kept bottled threatened to overrun his self-control.

"We can leave it there for today if you have-"

Ignoring whatever she was saying, Adrien ran.

Why wasn't he allowed to just be free to make his own choice for once?

* * *

Those at the school had been sent home temporarily while the crisis was resolved, and in her room Marinette watched as the monstrous creature that was Ivan rampaged down Paris.

"I hate first days back at school." She groaned from behind her chair's back. After leaning too far forward , the chair gave way to gravity as she let out a yelp.

* * *

Back at Agreste Mansion, Adrien watched on the television as the apparent 'Super-Villain' clashed with police blockades on the road, tossing cars and taking shots with ease.

That was when he noticed a small hexagonal box sitting innocuously on the table in front of the sofa.

"What's this doing here?" He murmured, reaching for it.

Was it a bribe from his father? A gift from Nathalie as a way of saying sorry? He hadn't seen it before.

Opening it revealed a ring as dark as onyx, which promptly blinded him in green light.

An orb was at the epicentre of the glow which was now eyelevel, and as the light receded, it revealed a small black creature within. Once the green energy was fully gone, it stretched, yawning.

"No way… Like the genie in the lamp!"

"I met him once." Came the rather surprisingly gravelly voice for such a tiny creature. "So he grants wishes. Big deal! I'm way more personable! Plagg. Nice to meet you. Ooh, swinky…"

Before Adrien could even react to the floating-talking-cat-thing in his room, the now introduced Plagg flew over to the foosball table to take a bite at one of the figures.

"No! Don't touch that! Come back here!"

Adrien attempt to snatch Plagg fell short, and he promptly flew off to the arcade machines.

"Ohh" So shiny! Can you eat this? No, you can't. Ooh, what about this!"

Several minutes later which consisted of an increasingly desperate Adrien trying to snatch the surprisingly aware and nimble creature while said thing dodged and set about biting whatever attracted his interest, the teenager eventually caught Plagg unawares from above.

"I still don't know what you're doing here." He panted.

"Look, I'm a Kwami. I grant powers. Yours is the power of destruction, got it?"

Adrien did  _not_ get it, and make this clear both physically and verbally.

"Good." Plagg said, completely ignoring the blond. "Now, have you got anything to eat? I'm starving…"

"My dad's pranking me, right?" Adrien tried to rationalise, half hysteric. "Wait, he couldn't be. He has no sense of humour."

Plagg suddenly turned serious, flying out of Adrien's clutched hands. "Your father must never know that I exist! Or anyone for that matter!"

* * *

"Do you think they'll be up to it, master?" Wayzz asked, his features the picture of uncertainty.

"I only got it wrong once. It will never happen again." Fu replied, closing the jewellery box, and hid it in its gramophone setup.

"At least, I hope not."

* * *

"But I'm stuck in here! I'm not even allowed to go to school! What good is a superhero who's imprisoned in his own house?!"

"No good." Plagg replied, playing with a roll of toilet paper. "That's why it's all going to change soon. If you're willing to change, that is."

Adrien groaned, sitting down while trying to comprehend the information that had been imparted on him.

An akuma had possessed some boy to turn him into an evil monster.

Akuma's are the result of corrupted Miraculouses, the containers for Kwami. The Butterfly Miraculous had been subjected to this, and so it's main power, creating courageous and loyal followers had been twisted for evil purposes.

Apparently such misuse was the cause of various omens associated with different creatures. The Black Cat Miraculous, the one he was now in possession of, had been similarly corrupted in the past, and so the resulting cat akumas struck misfortune on all who crossed them leading to their superstitious reputation.

Destruction and Misfortune, those where the two things associated with his Miraculous. He was now the new holder, and it was apparently up to him to contest the existence of evil.

The pros of taking up the roll? Freedom. He could go out into Paris, be a hero, be loved and make some friends, all without having to abide by the strict regime controlled by his father! Rather ironic the closest he was getting to normality was by being a superhero…

Plus, Plagg had told him he would definitely not be alone in it! He's have a partner, a confidant, a teammate! She was supposed to be the owner of the Ladybug Miraculous the Kwami had said.

He could imagine it so vividly; A a proper friend to laugh and joke around with who wasn't preapproved by his father, someone who could get to know him and vice versa, all the while with the security of a secret identity. It would be perfect.

Then again though, there were some cons to it. Would he be good enough? He was Adrien Agreste, a rich boy model. He didn't really know a hard day of work in his life, so how could he save Paris whenever the villian struck? Could he get close to or identify with someone who probably had a group of friends, and was as Chloé would say, a 'commoner'. He wouldn't understand them, how could he? He knew nothing outside of the isolated life he had. Maybe she'd be like him though. Maybe.

Given the life he led too, would he be able to manage another on top of it? Would he be good enough?

The only friend he has was Chloé, and he was worried about that too: what if Ladybug was just like her? Always bossing him around, telling him what to do, he had enough of that at home, he wanted freedom!

"She won't be like that." Plagg snorted when he voiced this, batting about the now hollow cardboard tube of roll. "Knowing the usual Ladybugs that Tikki has, she'll be strong willed yeah, but not bratty. Plus, you're a a Black Cat! Who're you to listen when you don't wanna! I don't!"

The last of it came rather muffled as the Kwami in question was now inside the vertical tube.

"Right, so… How do I do this?" Adrien sighed. He was nervous, but also excited.

"Claws out!" Plagg divulged, peeking out from the toilet roll. "That's how you transform."

"Got it. Plagg, claws out!"

"No, wait! I haven't finished explaining!"

The transformation engulfed Adrien, green light flashing as it took hold.

When the spots in his eyes finally dissipated, he could take in his appearance, his new alter ego.

He wore a textured black skin-tight catsuit with, judging by their slight weight and shine, metal details.

It was the strangest sensation behind him, too; a belt tail. There were no nerves, but Adrien could feel it sway and automatically adjust for him for balance. The boots where rather lightweight with a hidden wedge, silver toes and what resembled paw print treads when he checked. There was the mask he could feel upon his face, like a highwayman mask, and cat ears on his head. These he could immediately tell where merely aesthetics even though they did seem to actively turn to face where he heard sounds, but his (human) hearing and even smell did seem rather enhanced.

Finally, the gloves completed the ensemble. At first glance they seemed unremarkable, until he noticed just how lethal they were: his fingertips were serrated metal claws. Those… Those could do some damage, and it did make him nervous seeing the light reflect ominously off them. Then there was the feeling of  _power_ running underneath them. Like boiling water in a pot, it hissed, bubbled, and aggressively threatened to overwhelm it's container, in this case his hands.

This must be the 'Catacylsm' power Plagg had briefly mentioned. Pure destruction incarnate at his fingertips.

It was strangely exhilarating, too. For someone who had never had control over anything, the ability to just utterly wipe something out of existence with a touch gave him a strange, cocky confidence.

"Too cool." Adrien whispered to himself.

* * *

In hindsight, he probably should have waited for Plagg to finish explaining himself.

Even after he had left, he was still noticing little details about his transformation. Like how he had an extendable indestructible baton he had discovered on a magnetic holster on his lower back.

He also hadn't noticed the little bell, either. It was, eh… He didn't like the connotations of it. Still, his Ladybug partner might like it, and he wouldn't mind being a tame cat in that case. The only exception would be for his partner.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this." Adrien murmured to himself, smiling as he tight roped walked over a street on the baton.

"Hey! You over there!"

Instantly homing in on the voice at the rooftops across from him, Adrien smiled widely. Finally, Ladybug turned up!

Bending his knees, he grabbed the baton firmly. Using it's slight flexibility that came and went when he needed it, he used the enhanced strength to launch himself like a pouncing cat over to the other end as the baton compressed in his hand like a tape measure.

"Sup partner!" His grin got slightly wider as he looked up at the shape on the chimney above him.

"No time for chatting boy-wonder, we've got a city to save!"

That must be-… What? Now that he was looking closer, Adrien noticed a few costume details that hadn't fitted into his preformed image of his partner-in-heroism.

"You're not Ladybug!" He blurted instantly. Ladybugs don't have fluffy tails, or ears! They weren't orange and white either!

"Nope, I'm not. Name's Vixen." She scowled slightly, her own small costumed ears flattening. "What's your persona supposed to be?"

"Oh, um…" Adrien ruffled his hair, still rather frazzled at this new heroine, and he hadn't honestly thought of one yet. "Er, Chat Noir! Yeah!"

Vixen's lips quirked. "You're calling yourself 'Chat Noir', really? The Black Cat Wielder calls himself Black Cat? Alright 'Chat Noir', a quick rule for now, we can go over any others another day. No names, okay? Keep it for the personas. Got it?"

Chat Noir's discomfort was slowly increasing, but he nodded regardless. Maybe it's just a cold start; it'll get better once Ladybug shows up.

"So um, where's Ladybug?" He asked curiously.

"Don't know don't care." Vixen replied, huffing. "As far as I know the Ladybug Miraculous isn't active, at least that's what my Kwami told me. Guess you're stuck with me instead for now."

 _Probably just a little late or nervous,_ Chat Noir decided firmly.  _She'll come._

"Now let's get going Chat Noir, follow my lead and we'll be done in no time!" She shot him a wide grin before bringing her own tool to bear.

The reed flute he hadn't noticed until now was brought to Vixen's lips. A short tune later, and her feet were glowing slightly. Without warning, she turned and broke into a short run, only three long strides before jumping and seemed to almost fly over to the other roofs.

"Come on Chat-Boy! Don't make me do this alone!" Vixen called back to him.

"It's Chat Noir." The teenager in question murmured to himself as he looked down at his baton.

A little motion tracker was on the screen on his baton showing her path. He had just realised that it had such a function after pressing the paw print accidentally. He looked up and saw Vixen still running across the rooftops, confidence visible even from where he was.

Second set of ears flattened against his head, tail swaying like a pendulum, Chat Noir followed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologises if there is anything glaringly wrong in the formatting for this, I've never posted anything on Ao3 before as I've usually stuck to the Fanfiction site. Please leave a comment regarding any issues with it and I'll be happy to fix them!


	2. Origins - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien and Plagg have a talk and Gabriel ponders and reassesses the situation.
> 
> Marinette meets Chloé's model friend the next day of school only to find he's not what she expected, and Stoneheart strikes again.

* * *

 

"You promised me Plagg!" Adrien vented his fury at the Kwami. "You  _promised!_ "

Plagg meanwhile, was silent.

The teenager huffed, roughly taking a seat on the sofa. Soon the anger turned to bitter disappointment as he sighed, the one breath easing some of his tenseness.

"This wasn't what I expected." Adrien whispered, running a hand through his hair, ignoring the background noise of the TV broadcast of the result from his and Vixen's failure to capture the akuma. Now more people were at risk.

"This wasn't what was  _supposed_ to happen." Plagg finally said, turning to face the human.

It struck Adrien then just how lost the Kwami looked.

"I… we've never really been apart." Plagg blurted, staring off. "Black Cats have worked with Foxes before, and the other Miraculouses, and there have been the times I've had Wielders with… not the purest of intentions. But Tikki has  _always_ been active.I just…"

Adrien waited to see if Plagg would continue after trailing off, but the Kwami resumed staring off into the distance.

"I don't want to work with  _her._ " Adrien scowled.

Through the whole fight against Stoneheart, she had bossed and berated him. He'd showed her Cataclysm, only for her to begin a tirade about how it's only one use per transformation and now they only had five minutes to fight the golem.

Yeah, he had been hasty. Yeah, he should have waited for Plagg to finish explaining. But he didn't need her to continuously hammer home just how much he'd messed up. Then of course, it was  _his_ fault they were arguing after beating Stoneheart,  _his_ fault that the akuma had gotten away.

But he was new to this, and as much as she liked to project just how confident she was, so was she!

…Okay, he was being slightly unfair there. She was just so… self-assured, so natural. It was kind of intimidating and threatening. He had been expecting a kind Ladybug who'd be learning the ropes alongside him, not a boisterous and sarcastic Fox who picked him up on everything.

She was so by the book on everything too! In their introduction she was going on about establishing rules which made no sense! It's not as if there is a handbook for superheroing! He could understand not wanting to reveal their real identities, but honestly! 'can go over any others another day', what's she even talking about there?! If she thought she was going to sit there and give him orders then she had another thing coming!

"Then…" Plagg again trailed off, thinking to himself.

"She treats me like a sidekick." Adrien mumbled. "I mean yeah I don't know as much as her on doing this and she was the one to take lead but-"

"But nothing!" Plagg suddenly snarled, taking Adrien by surprise, before repeating himself. "But nothing. This never should have happened, I mean- Tikki's chosen were the planners, and we were the doers! We had chemistry; we worked in sync, this, this-!" Plagg spluttered, waving a paw. "This is ridiculous! Especially now, against another Miraculous from our circle! What the hell is that old man  _doing?!_ "

"Old man?" Adrien asked intently.

"I said too much," Plagg tried to backtrack, "forget it."

"No!" Adrien retorted, his forgotten anger returning with a vengeance. "I didn't let you finish last time and that was on me, but we are going to talk Plagg, and you're going to tell me what went wrong here! Where's Ladybug? Who's this Vixen girl? How did you even get here?!"

Plagg was silent, seemingly struggling with himself before answering.

"There's a lot you don't know, kid. About Kwamis and about Miraculouses. What went wrong here was that there's no Ladybug, and there doesn't seem to be one coming anytime soon. On a temporary basis or for a few missions we can work with other Miraculous or even better, alone, but in the long run the Black Cat functions better with a Ladybug. Destruction and Creation, Misfortune and Luck. We're- you're, not supposed to be separated!"

Plagg exhaled before floating down beside Adrien.

"'Vixen' is the current Fox Miraculous holder as you know, and the Fox Miraculous is the partner of the Peacock. Only, Duusu is missing. I guess that's why Trixx is working right off the bat with us, rather than messing around. Doesn't help that her fox is so serious."

"Missing?" Adrien echoed.

Plagg tensed. "Gone, disappeared. AWOL. No clue where she is now."

Adrien could tell the Kwami was avoiding the question, but was for now satisfied.

"And the old man? Is that how you got here?"

"He's the Great Guardian," Plagg confessed, "the uh, how to put this… Caretaker? Keeper? Yeah, Keeper, we'll go with that; he's the Keeper of our Miraculouses, and in times of need, he reccomends humans for us to work with. You were chosen by him as the best to work with me."

"The old man at the school." Adrien realised.

"Probably, I wasn't really paying attention." Plagg shrugged. "But yeah. That's how we met. I just don't get why Ladybug is not here. I mean sure, whoever has Nooroo is a threat obviously wanting the Miraculouses, but we'd work better  _together!_ "

"Maybe he's worried we'd be too inexperienced? We'd fail right from the beginning?" Adrien scoffed self-deprecatingly.

"Maybe in his mind. He's nearly two hundred if I remember right." Plagg murmured, ignoring the alarmed look that crossed Adrien's features.

"Do you know where he is, maybe we can ask him?"

"As if that'd work." Plagg scoffed. "If he didn't send out Tikki the first time around, what makes you think he will now? He knew I wouldn't like it, and still went ahead."

After a brief moment of silence, Adrien repeated an earlier statement.

"I'm not working with her."

"You have to, kid." Plagg sighed. "She'll be the purifier for the akuma, you'll need to guard her-"

"-Because I'm the sidekick, right?" The teenager snapped.

"You'd be doing the same thing with Ladybug!" Plagg retorted.

"I wouldn't mind if it was Ladybug!" Adrien hissed. "She wouldn't remind me I'm just a sidekick every few minutes, she probably wouldn't at all, and she'd treat me like a  _fucking_ partner, not an idiot tag-a-long!"

"Look, I know it's not ideal, but-"

"-But nothing!" Adrien interrupted, taking a small bit of satisfaction at the annoyance displayed by Plagg. "I accepted the responsibilities in the understanding that there were a few benefits too, Plagg! Being treated like some lackey… this is not what I signed up for!"

"Well I'm sorry the hero life isn't the idealised fiction you had imagined, kid." Plagg jeered.

"All I asked for was some freedom and a partner." Adrien fumed. "Is that  _really_ too much to ask? I'm sorry I'm so selfish that I had my own interests in mind for once in my life!"

Was that really so selfish of him? Nearly everything in his life had been micromanaged up to this point, from what he ate to what he wore and what he even done with his time. His mother had managed to persuade his father against overloading him, and had even fought to get him into public schooling this year. Only she had gone missing, and now his father was backtracking on their agreement. He just wanted to have some freedom, to be a teenager for once! His father did enough ordering him about without his input; he didn't need it in his alter-ego too!

The pair was at a standstill, glaring at each other as the television droned on beside them. Adrien folded first.

"I don't really need Vixen, do I Plagg? Isn't there any other way?" Adrien pleaded.

"I…" Plagg paused, fighting with his indecision. It was usually the Great Guardian's place to do this, to teach, educate and guide the Miraculous Holders while the Kwami were steadfast companions and advisors. Plagg however, was never much good for listening to others aside from Tikki, and he was too angry at the old man.

 _If he's changing the rules,_ the Kwami thought savagely,  _then so am I!_

For the first time since they got back, Plagg grinned. It wasn't a pleasant one.

"Actually, no. You don't." He purred. "You were right you know, we  _are_ going to talk kid. You know how your baton has different functions that adapt to what you want or need? Mobile communicator, slight flexibility… well, it's not just your only tool. To a lesser extent, you can manipulate your powers of destruction and/or misfortune."

"I have other powers?" Adrien questioned. "Like that thing Vixen done to make her move faster?"

Plagg scowled. "Technically you're supposed to learn these things over time as you develop your powers with experience, but Trixx doesn't really care all too much for rules. Yeah that's a side power for the Fox Miraculous, it's not her superpower though. You have Cataclysm as you know for yours, but you've got a few other tricks as well. Such as the purification method you'll be using."

"Yeah?" Adrien leaned in.

"It can be a little, hmm… intoxicating when you use it, fair warning. You're going to need some self control, to not get... addicted, to the feeling and the result."

"I'm listening, Plagg. Get on with it."

If it meant not having to work with Vixen, he would do anything.

"That power you feel under the gloves, the feeling you get when generating Cataclysm? You need to dial it back. Bring it to the surface, nothing more. Cataclysm is far more effective overall, but with enough skill and practice, you can use this method on a tiny scale, on things that would make using your superpower wasteful. Catacylsm is simply stronger, less time consuming and can be applied to more situations, but this way still has its uses."

Adrien nodded to show he was still listening.

"Now, do you mind killing butterflies?"

The teenager reeled, rather shocked at the sudden question.

"No! I mean, yes! I mean-"

"Well, you can just release that destructive energy on the akuma and it's a done deal there." Plagg shrugged. "You can't capture them, only Tikki developed a method of doing that. The other's can purify them, but well, you're not really suited for restoring something, but you're still 'purifying' it right?!" The Kwami laughed.

Adrien eyed the little god with no small degree of trepidation, now wondering why he had dismissed the creature as a deadly threat.

Plagg snorted at the teenager's reaction. "It's just a butterfly-… don't ever let Tikki or Nooroo know I said that." The Kwami chuckled, before realising that he likely wouldn't be hearing from either any time soon.

"Right. So, why wasn't I told I could, uh… purify them before?" Adrien asked, trying to pull the Kwami out of his funk.

"Oh, well it's more to do with that Tikki, Wayzz and Pollen are just better suited for it. Trixx has a method too, it's just less developed I suppose. Me, Nooroo and Duusu aren't as practised with the whole purification thing. As far as I know Duusu can't do anything to them, we can at least use blunt force."

"Why?" Adrien asked. "Why can't you three purify one in the same way as the others, Plagg?"

"Well akumas aren't exactly a common thing through history y'know. Miraculouses don't usually end up in the wrong hands, and when they have, it's those four who've had the most experience with it in our circle. Just the way things are."

"Then what are your roles?"

Plagg hummed. "It's… not so easily categorised." He settled for. Seeing Adrien's expression, he chuckled.

"I'm not done yet kid, don't worry, just settle down. Now, in our circle there are seven of us, five "lesser" Kwami with me and Tikki at the centre. There's hmm, the 'Creation Duo' we'll call it; Tikki and I, then there's the Order Duo and the Divinity Duo."

"What are these other two Duos?" Adrien questioned.

"Order is Trixx and Duusu, and-"

"Wait the fox, the mischief maker, the trickster… is in the  _Order_ Duo?" Adrien interrupted incredulously.

Plagg sighed. "Right, forgot this is a Western country. See we're originally from the East, and over yonder foxes are seen as mischievous yes, but they're also companions, guides and good omens. Just depends on the culture, and what Trixx and her Chosen were like when they were active. But it's more so the death side of things. Guide for the spirits and all that jazz. The thing is, you lot don't really understand why a little chaos can be a good thing; a straight path through your time on this planet would be pretty dull, eh? Anyway, Duusu is her counterpart, a representation of life and clarity. The other sides of Trixx, if you will."

The Kwami paused to remember what he had been talking about.

"The Divinity Duo would be Wayzz and Nooroo, the Turtle and the Butterfly. Stability and Change, with powers of foresight too."

"Divinity? Their holders can see the future?" Adrien asked, worried about the implications.

"No, no, not like that. Divinity as in divination in the occultism sense, not future seeing. Wyazz is very adept at energy sensing, while Nooroo can give foresight in intuition, a high adaptability to change. We've all got our own little powers and the like, but it  _is_ better if you learn this over time, kid."

"And the Bee one? Pollen?" Adrien asked.

"Jack of all trades but master of none." Plagg quipped. "Seriously. She can integrate with any of the three duos, and even combinations between them. Comes with her aspect being Community and Motivation. Wouldn't mind her about now…"

"So, is there any special relationship between them?" Adrien asked, trying to prevent Plagg going quiet again. "Or is it just opposites?"

"I wouldn't say opposites, more like two sides of a coin." Plagg's brow furrowed. "Aside from that, not really. There is some relation to Wu Xing, given where we were more known, but honestly, we don't have much of an advantage over each other or anything like that. When an abstract concept comes into existence, there is usually a Kwami to represent it, but quite a few concepts can fall under a single Kwami. Some of us have hmm… better relations we'll say, with other Kwami. Jakni and Duusu, man, they do  _not_ get along."

"Jakni?" Adrien asked.

"We're not the only Kwami in existence, like I said." Plagg clarified, but didn't elaborate further.

"So… you're sure about flying solo, kid?" Plagg asked.

"I am." Adrien replied firmly. "Maybe it'll change in the future but we just… don't get along." He then sighed, worrying his lip. "What if someone got hurt or we were too slow because we were too busy arguing or just can't work that well together? I won't work against her, but we just can't work together as a team."

"Nice to see you're being responsible with it." Plagg nodded, satisfied. "It happens sometimes. Wielders have had rivalries, even good honest hatred between them, just the way humans can be. Just don't let it affect the job when it matters."

"I won't." Adrien swore. It felt surprisingly relieving to have a course of action he wanted to actually be agreed with. Tonight he'd talk it over with Vixen, and let her know what will be the new arrangement between them. She had said before they had departed on their less than pleasant terms that she expected to see him at the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Now if only his father would agree to let him go to school, hmm…

* * *

"You didn't see him leave? If anything happens to my son, you will be held responsible!"

It was the day after he had akumatized that boy Ivan into Stoneheart, and it looked like his son had decided to have another go at attending public school, not helping Gabriel's current state.

Gabriel was already quite stressed, and this incident just made him more snappish than usual. That fool of a Guardian had chosen what seemed to be teenagers to be the Wielders, and worst of all, it was the fox and the cat!

 _It is a rather clever move,_ Gabriel mused.  _A way of testing me, perhaps…_

No Ladybug meant that public damage done would not be fixed, and that applied for most injuries and wounds caused too within the window of time for her power. There was now a genuine risk to lives and livelihood, and that Guardian was testing him to see how he'd react. Would he not care and plough on regardless? Or would he step back and relax his stance?

Neither option was very good. If he kept going, the risk of death and destruction was far higher, and it was really the last thing he wanted to cause. Plus, that might encourage the Guardian to send out the Ladybug Miraculous, and then he'd be dealing with  _three_ Wielders.

But if he relaxed, it would be too easy for them to defeat him. He had to strike a delicate balance.

The only good side to this he could see was the fact two Miraculouses were out in the open, and they seemed to have something of a conflict between them. That could prove useful; then again, he could wait and see them implode on themselves.

Stoneheart had been a good test of his theories on the Chosen of the Butterfly, even the akumatized versions. Teenagers had a much more active imagination, and were much more prone to mood swings and temper. Easy prey for his akumas, and the active imagination would prove effective in the long run to provide a large pool of powers. Adults were usually narrow minded in such scenarios, imagination usually going down the lines of strength and the like, or usually just dealing with the problem.

Targeting teenagers meant attacks could happen whenever, meaning no pattern could be established in his attacks. Gabriel swallowed down the guilt at the potential mental upset the boy would be going through. Once more attacks occurred, they'd realise it wasn't the akumatized Chosen's fault. Until then, he'd ignore the little voice in his head that sounded like Nooroo, telling him it wasn't too late.

If he stopped now, it would be all for nothing.

Of course, this would be much easier if his blasted son would stop running off into danger! Going out without a protection detail, going to a  _public school,_ gods if his secretary Nathalie and Adrien's assigned bodyguard Mathis didn't catch him, he could've been caught up in Stoneheart's rampage!

Gabriel didn't want Adrien out of his influence while he was Hawk Moth. While he had control over the akumatized to some extent, he was a busy man. Sometimes he'd need to leave them to do their own thing, and he couldn't do that with the knowledge his son could be at risk!

He couldn't risk something like that happening. He wouldn't risk his son's wellbeing if he doesn't notice an akuma making a target out of his son.

Nervously pacing, he planned out his next moves. Revisit Stoneheart at a moment of weakness. His two foes hadn't been able to capture and purify his akuma, so it had been able to multiply. All he needed was that boy Ivan to falter, then he'd have even more at his disposal. Outright havoc wasn't the way to go, however. He needed to minimalise potential destruction. Perhaps influencing the boy into taking hostages? That had potential. A trade-off. See if he could turn the Parisians against the heroes; pressure them into accepting his deal.

Now if only he could find his son in time to avoid possible collateral…

* * *

"You're such a strange kid. Who would want to be at school when he can stay home all day?"

Adrien had made another break for it, and was currently racing down the streets of Paris.

"You really don't get it Plagg. I've had enough of being shut up at home by my father, I want to meet people and make friends! Go to a normal school like everyone else!"

It looked like Chat Noir wasn't going to be the escape he had hoped it to be, seeing as they'd now be going somewhat alone. The talk last night with Vixen had devolved to slight bitterness, but she had conceded on his points that the public could be at risk if they didn't get their act together, and seeing as they had no chemistry, she had agreed to them going alone.

She had looked rather sceptical when he had revealed he did have a method of purifying akumas, but she had told him on no uncertain terms that they would need to have a time and place for co-ordinating on a weekly basis just in case anything did come up. It was therefore agreed (reluctantly on Chat's part, but still agreed) that they would either meet the night of an attack if one were to occur during the day, and if they were unable to do so it would be on the Sunday of that week regardless if there was an attack or not at midnight sharp.

That the possibility of a friend was soured for the Chat Noir side of his life only made Adrien want to attend public school even more. He could have lived with continuing to be home schooled if he had a partner (though he still would have not given up without a fight) as Chat Noir, but now, he  _needed_ to have company that wasn't just Chloe, adults and the occasional other model.

Hence why he had snuck out  _again_ in complete defiance of his father after being directly told he wouldn't be going the night before. He had the faint hope that if it became public knowledge he was attending the school; his father wouldn't wish to put Adrien's image in jeopardy by pulling him out on the same day. The media would eat it up.

"Uhhh, I'm feeling weak…"

 _You just had some cheese not half an hour ago!_ Adrien groaned mentally.

"You know what's strange?" Adrien asked rhetorically instead of complaining, while he fished a small chunk of the cheese from his bag. "The fact that all you eat is this disgusting, rotten, smelly Camembert cheese and then I have smell like it twenty four-seven. That's strange."

It really was disgusting, since Adrien wasn't the biggest of cheese eaters.

"If you want to be able to transform into a superhero, then stinky cheese is the deal my friend!" Plagg retorted, already much more cheerful after consuming the dairy product.

Not bothering to dignify it with a reply, Adrien continued onwards.

* * *

"So have you seen this new site that had gone up last night?!"

Marinette hadn't, but she had a feeling she was going to learn about it. Juleka seemed to be already aware, given her fondly exasperated smile towards Rose.

"What site?" Marinette asked regardless, as she was quite curious.

"' _The Fox's Den'_ " Rose stated gleefully. "It's about that Fox superhero, Vixen! Look, it's the video from yesterday!"

Marinette watched the amateur footage again from someone's phone that captured the fight between Stoneheart and the two new superheroes, Vixen and Chat Noir. For being from a phone it was surprisingly decent quality, with no shaking at all, and had been on several new channels. This must be the original, she deduced. It wasn't as cleaned up, and had none of the cuts the news had.

"Who recorded it?" Marinette asked after it ended.

"The new girl Alya, she's in our class! She made the website too, it's so cool!" Rose positively gushed, while Juleka rolled her eyes.

"Well thanks!" Came suddenly from behind them.

* * *

Alya's last few days had been quite stressful. Not only had her family moved recently to Paris, but she had just started at the new school as well, and it had been… lonely.

She had arrived late since she had waited to make sure the old man who had had a terrible fall on her way to the school was alright, and since she had just gotten in the doors of the classroom when the lesson started she knew she'd already made a bad impression on the teacher and other classmates. Given that she had decided to give the lesson her full attention, hoping to redeem herself in Miss Bustier's eyes.

When the next lesson came (a free for her since she didn't have physical education) she had nervously fallen behind the crowd going to the library. This would be the moment where she'd get to make some friends, but when she entered, she saw everybody go off into their own groups.

It had taken a few minutes to pluck up the courage to go over and talk to the three girls at the table, but as she was doing so that golem thing had started rampaging.

School would definitely be out for the day and maybe the few after that, and Alya couldn't help but bemoan the lost opportunity. New kids at schools have a small window of time to integrate themselves because the other kids would have made up their minds on them and it wouldn't be easy to change their opinions after that. She knew this from experience as her family had moved a few times before.

So, she needed a way to start a conversation and make sure she's not forgotten, like what had happened at her last school. Not having friends wasn't fun; Alya also knew that from experience. Nor was being bullied.

So, against the small voice in her head screaming that it was a bad idea, Alya had taken off after the golem to get some on scene footage. Who knows, maybe this would also kick-start her career in journalism, or at least make sure she's a known name?

The news had started calling it a "supervillain", which only made her more excited. If there was a genuine supervillain out there, then that meant there would be a superhero. It was on her journey following it that Alya had slipped into a nearby alley to get her phone out of her bag; only to find a small box that definitely did not belong to her.

Her curiosity led her to opening it, and in a flash of blinding orange light, she was introduced to Trixx.

Given the situation, the little creature gave her a quick rundown.

Trixx was a Kwami, more specifically the god of death and chaos, and now Alya was her Miraculous Wielder. There were seven of them, and it was evident the Butterfly Wielder had gone rouge because the akuma (evil use of the power of a Miraculous Trixx had summed up) wandering was a Chosen Champion, one of the Butterfly's powers.

Alya's job was to stop the akuma and purify it, though she wouldn't be doing it alone, Trixx had told her. There would be another Miraculous Wielder active seeing as they usually worked in pairs, Trixx had told her one was already active, so she should expect Pollen's(the Bee Kwami) Wielder.

Alya had been utterly elated through the whole thing. She'd read about superheroes before but had never dreamt she'd get the opportunity to  _be_ one! The first order of business would be a name. Immediately she discarded 'Renard Rouge', or 'Red Fox', seeing as that was rather unimaginative. She needed a cool name, dammit!

She had settled on 'Vixen' a few moments later, or the full worded feminine French word, 'Renarde'. Short, easy to call out on if shortened to 'Rena', and it was what a female fox was called.

When she had bemoaned how difficult it would be to catch up to the golem now, Trixx assured her she wasn't short on powers when suited up. Music, more specifically her flute, was her main tool, and while her flute could make illusions only as strong as her imagination, there were other things she'd learn in time. Short tunes, some melodies, a dance or two, and a couple vocal notes.

Trixx quickly taught her a few before sending her on her way, beginning with what would let her catch up to the akumatized student. 'Allegro' would let her run faster and jump higher and farther while it was active, though it would fade if she was static in her movement too long.

Vixen had been quite shocked when she saw what had to be her new partner tight-rope walking between homes on his baton, having expected a girl like herself and someone in yellow, not black.

After taking a deep breath, she had called out to him from her position on a chimney stack. "Hey! You over there!"

That had certainly got his attention, before he performed some gymnastics to bounce and land before her in one fell swoop. Through the whole thing all she got was the image of Dick Grayson from the Flying Graysons or as he was more commonly known, 'Robin'.

"Sup partner!" The blond had said with a cocky grin.

"No time for chatting boy-wonder, we've got a city to save!" Vixen had said, trying to keep them on track. The akumatized (she was definitely making that mainstream) villain was stomping off towards the stadium at that moment and she had already seen it plough through some police who had tried to block its path.

"You're not Ladybug!" Boy-wonder had said instead, ignoring her.

Yeah she had been just as surprised to not see Pollen's Wielder but she hadn't said that had she? At least one of them had their priorities straight.

"Nope, I'm not. Name's Vixen." She scowled slightly. "What's your persona supposed to be?"

"Oh, um…" Boy-wonder had run a hand through his already messy hair, and she could tell he really hadn't given it much thought. "Er, Chat Noir! Yeah!"

Vixen's lips had quirked, hiding her annoyance. This was the one working with her? He looked like he couldn't honestly care less!

"You're calling yourself 'Chat Noir', really? The Black Cat Wielder calls himself Black Cat? Alright 'Chat Noir', a quick rule for now, we can go over any others another day. No names, okay? Keep it for the personas. Got it?"

It was the first thing that had needed to be established. No names, they didn't need to put their families in danger and introductions right now would just slow them down from their already delayed task.

"So um, where's Ladybug?" Chat Noir had asked her, as if she was meant to know.

"Don't know don't care." Vixen had replied dismissively. "As far as I know the Ladybug Miraculous isn't active, at least that's what my Kwami told me. Guess you're stuck with me for now."

And that had been the truth. All she knew was a Miraculous had been active while she talked to Trixx, though she couldn't tell which one and had just assumed it was Pollen. Apparently the Turtle Kwami was the best at the whole sensing shtick.

"Now let's get going Chat Noir, follow my lead and we'll be done in no time!" She had shot him a matching wide grin to his first one before bringing her flute to bear. A short tune later, Allegro was active and her feet were glowing slightly.

"Come on Chat-Boy! Don't make me do this alone!" She had called back to him after bounding over to the next set of houses in the direction of the stadium.

After that, things had gone downhill. They couldn't co-ordinate during the fight, it had led them to arguing, and he ended up distracting her while the akuma had gotten away.

Chat Noir had raced ahead of her as if it was a competition and dived right into the fight while she set up her phone to record it, using that time to formulate a plan. However she had to also rush in to save the foolhardy cat. Then after that the idiot had used his power against the goals while trying to show off, so they hadn't had any time to plan their attack at all!

She had been rightfully irritated with him and had let him know why, only for him to get snappy with her. Oh boohoo, she's not Ladybug, get over it!

Needless to say, their first contact hadn't gone well, and neither had the conversation the same night.

Yes she had treated him like a sidekick because he had been acting like one! One of them had to take the lead! Every superhero duo has the hero and the sidekick, a Batman and Robin! She did agree with him on a few other things, though. Together they weren't compatible. Without him to worry about she'd be able to make a plan of action, and focus on the job at hand without him goofing off. Several times during the fight he had been making jokes and stupid puns, she just wished that the serious side she had seen in the Cathedral that night had actually stuck around.

That same night she had started work on her website, ' _The Fox's Den_ ', for a number of reasons. It gave her somewhere to post her videos, for one. Who would suspect the fan-made site's creator as Vixen herself? She'd also made up a thread dedicated to any attacks, akuma related or otherwise, so she could respond to them. She'd also made other plans to speak with the police and the mayor. A good relationship with them would go a long way down the line.

It was gratifying to hear people in her class discussing her work, and it had also given her a reason to make conversation.

"The new girl Alya, she's in our class! She made the blog too, it's so cool!" The blonde haired girl said to her two friends in front of her.

"Well thanks!" Alya smiled when they turned to face her.

"Oh, it's you!" Blondie squealed. "Wow, your blog is  _amazing!_ I'm Rose, this is Juleka and this is Marinette!"

She exchanged greetings with them, and then Marinette spoke to her.

"So uh, you were there for that fight then?"

"Yeah I was up in the bleachers recording." Alya smiled.

"Guess that must've been a good warm-up for P.E." Juleka chuckled.

"Yeah," Alya laughed, "it must've. I followed him to the stadium."

"Really? Wow that was brave of you!" Rose told her.

"More like risky!" Marinette chipped in.

"Well I am considering a career in journalism and I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie. Plus it's not every day you see a supervillian!"

"Oh hey, speak of the devil." Juleka commented. "There's Ivan."

There was already a crowd formed around the large teen when they approached him.

"So you don't remember anything?" The shortest girl out of them asked him.

"You were totally going ballistic. It was so cool!" Juleka told him with a smile.

The boy who had been a target the day before however wasn't happy, Alya noticed.

"You were seriously out to crush me, dude!" He finally fumed.

Ivan was already uncomfortable with the attention, and this seemed to tip it.

"Oh, I'm sorry… I wasn't myself…" He tried to explain to them, not that they seemed to really care too much.

Alya remembered the news from last night. Ivan had been detained by the police to be questioned on what exactly happened, and it turned out that akuma's inflict amnesia for the duration of the, for a lack of a better word, possession. He had explained that before it happened, he had heard a man talk to him in his head, and had told him he was giving him the power to seek revenge. Already emotional and not thinking, Ivan had accepted.

All the police had was the name 'Hawk Moth'.

An overly prim blonde girl near them snorted. "Once a monster, always a monster."

Not wanting to hear any more of it and beginning to lose his temper due to being blamed for something he had extremely little control over, Ivan marched away. Still, the blonde bint didn't let up.

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out!" She jeered after him.

The second day at school and Alya already knew who the resident bully was.

"How could you say that to Ivan? You're the real Stoneheart." Alya scolded the girl.

Stoneheart was the name the Hawk Moth guy had apparently given Ivan.

"Ugh, so I'm the one who broke Sabrina's dad's arm, am I? Just because your footage of those lame superheroes was shown on TV, doesn't mean you have to get so high and mighty." The girl then had the cheek to pop her gum in her face! Now it was doubly personal!

"You little-"Alya started, only for the girl to cut her off.

"Look out, she's angry! She's going to split her underwear and turn into a huge muscled monster!"

That made… no sense, but Alya was already done with the Queen Bee here. Trixx had told her last night that an akuma could repossess if the same negative emotions occurred, and she really didn't want it happening again at school, so she rushed to head off Ivan.

Meanwhile Marinette was a little out of sorts with it all. On one hand, she wanted to stick up for Alya who seemed pretty cool, but on the other, she really didn't care for making herself a target of Chloé so soon in the morning. She eventually settled on going to class early, hoping to prove Mme. Bustier right and set a trend for the new term.

* * *

Marinette watched the growing argument with the rest of the class in a small degree of wonder. None of them had really seen anyone go toe to toe with Chloé before, and so it was quite the sight.

Chloé's new buddy was apparently starting today, and she wanted him to sit in front of her. The thing was, that's where Alya sits, and when she walked in to see Chloé directing him there, the situation… escalated. Not that the two were on decent terms already.

The two girls were furiously throwing insults back and forth with awe-inspiring passion while Chloé's friend stood to the side near her bench, awkwardly fiddling with the strap of his bag.

 ** _Gabriel_** _branding,_ Marinette absentmindedly noticed.  _Niiice. Expensive though, but given he's a friend of Chloé it's to be expected._

"Excuse me um, do you mind if I just sit here?" Pretty Boy had seemed to notice her staring, (she had honestly forgotten his name from yesterday given that there were superheroes and stuff going on) and so he pleaded with her quietly, green eyes wide.

Marinette blinked, drawn out of checking him out ( _because Gabriel of course)_. Pretty Boy had just talked to her.  _Her._ What sort of weird friend of Chloé was he? Maybe it hadn't clicked for him yet.

"Yeah, sure." She smiled (uncertainly) back, shuffling up to make room for him to sit.

"Thanks, so I'm uh, Adrien. You are?" He offered her his hand.

Marinette blinked again. This, this was an odd one.

"Marinette." She replied, shaking his hand (still with uncertainty that only seemed to increase) before turning back to the verbal tennis match.

"Are they always like this?" Adrien whispered to her.

Marinette hummed. "You're… Chloé's friend, right?" She instead replied with slowly, testing the unnatural usage of the word 'friend' in relation to Chloé Bourgeois.

Adrien nodded. Marinette was suddenly struck with just how out of place and confused he was.

"Well, this is Chloé. Not sure if you've actually met her before, but…" Marinette gestured to the girl as she labelled Alya a string of words that were surprisingly vulgar given the blonde's prim nature. "…She's like this all the time."

"I knew she can be a bit… prickly, but-"Adrien was caught off guard by Marinette's hand covered giggle.

"You seem to be the only one she's 'a bit prickly' with, even Sabrina there isn't really seen as much to Chloé. If she's 'prickly' with you, she's positively cutting with anyone else. I'd know. She's bullied me for a good four years now." Marinette's smile turned bitter.

"Oh, ah, and I said I was her, er-"Adrien awkwardly ran his hand through his hair, but Marinette waved him off.

"She's your friend. I'm just not a fan of her."

"I've not really had a good grasp on friends before," Adrien confessed to her, "I was, um… homeschooled before coming here. Chloé was all I had in that area."

Ah, yes. Chloé's famous friend was just starting school now. God, Marinette couldn't imagine having just Chloé as your framework for friendship, even when she was only 'prickly'.

Marinette gave him a soft smile, and spoke equally softly when she saw him flinch and go wide eyed when she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, if you have any questions let me know. I'll be happy to help a friend."

* * *

Adrien was positively glowing.

 _A friend! She said I'm a friend!_ He couldn't help but crow to himself.

He talked with his new friend (friend!) for a few more minutes as she told him who was in his class and what they were like, until Chloé seemed to realise where he was.

"Adrikins! What are you doing down there!" Chloé called to him, cutting off the Alya girl who looked more hurt at being interrupted than the insults they had been snapping off at each other.

"Hmm? Oh I'm talking to Marinette, you have fun!" He said absentmindedly, before returning to the current subject of 'swirlies' with the black haired girl and if they were indeed a rite of passage like Chloé had told him for new students.

He was sure they were, hence his worry, but Marinette wouldn't stop laughing every time he tried to explain that he had a shoot later today and so couldn't afford to mess up the hair he'd done this morning. His father would be furious if he was anything but perfect, especially since he had been at school today, it would just be more ammunition for him to refuse allowing Adrien to continue going.

"I wouldn't mind rescheduling it," he confided in her quietly as she waved him off while biting the inside of her cheek, "it's just that today is not a good day so-"

"Ugh, don't waste your time with  _that_ trollop, Adrien." Chloé snorted. "No class. Sit here in front of me, and new girl can go there."

"'New girl' is staying where she is, Chloé Bitch-geois! We're not finished!" Alya fumed.

"Besides," Adrien frowned, finally facing her so she could see he wasn't pleased, "I'm happy here."

His new friend seemed to brighten up after that, making Adrien sure that denying Chloé this time around was well worth it. Besides, he had enough of his father at home dictating his every move and action, he'd be damned if he let Chloé of all people dictate his friends.

 _Friends don't do that,_ Adrien decided.  _Marinette's been bullied by her and didn't tell me to stop being friends with her._

The teacher came in before Chloé could say anything more, and so she and Alya sat, with the latter far happier about it than the former.

"That's Miss Bustier," Marinette informed him with a whisper while he anxiously made sure he had all his stationary, "attendance is taken at the start of a class, you need to say 'here', or 'present' for it."

Adrien nodded, flashing her smile and gently squeezed her hand on the table before withdrawing to his own side.

A hug was a bit too obvious in the classroom, and the only two other ways of showing gratitude between friends he knew of in his experience from Chloé were a kiss (he usually dodged them), squeezing a hand or a shoulder. Kissing would be inappropriate, and since she'd already gone with shoulder, he defaulted to hand.  _Nothing wrong with that,_ Adrien reasoned, not noticing the reddening Marinette beside him.

"Right, let's try this again shall we?" Miss Bustier addressed them, silencing any conversation still ongoing while Marinette managed to get her blush under control.

* * *

 _He's homeschooled, he doesn't know better,_ she told herself firmly while avoiding eye contact, calming her quickened heart.  _Underdeveloped social skills, yeah._

"Agreste, Adrien?" Their teacher called out, her eyes on the sheet of paper in front of her.

Seeing his hesitation, Marinette gave him an encouraging nudge with her elbow.

"Uh, present!"

Marinette gave a quiet, exasperated giggle while their classmates laughed at Adrien who had shot up, standing to attention.

Gently guiding him back to his seat she gave the blushing boy a warm smile.

 _Honestly, he's such a dork,_ she thought to herself fondly, watching as Adrien nervously fiddled with- were those sterling silver engraved fountain pens?

She honestly hadn't made the connection to the Agreste name until now, even with the clues of Adrien being a model and apparently famous according to Chloé. Marinette was having a slight bit of trouble reconciling the image of the model, rich kid son of her fashion idol with the dorky teenager beside her.

"Bourgeois, Chloé?" Miss Bustier moved on down the list.

"Here!"

Eventually Marinette just mentally shrugged and accepted that yes, it would be like the reclusive Gabriel Agreste to have an equally awkward son.

 _He is quite the looker though, so the model thing is definitely true,_ Marinette thought to herself while she followed Adrien's jaw line with her eyes.

While Marinette struggled to also understand where exactly that thought came from and also attempt to argue it was purely objective, she never heard Miss Bustier call out for Bruel, Ivan. She did hear the classroom door be punched off, and she certainly did witness it crash into the wall to her and Adrien's immediate right.

Some of them made it out of the door while Stoneheart was distracted, but like the majority of the class who sat on the side farthest, she made her way to the back of the classroom. Mylène however wasn't fast enough, and Chloé was hiding under the desk on her phone.

"Let go of me, Ivan!" Mylène pleaded with her captor.

"I'm not Ivan anymore." The golem replied in its gravelly voice. "I'm Stoneheart."

"Why are you doing this?" Mylène squeaked, trapped in the clutch of the stone creature.

"So you and I can be together forever!"

"Daddy, the monster is back!" Chloé spoke into her phone's microphone.

 _Should've whispered,_ Marinette winced as Stoneheart easily heard the surprisingly brave (but unsurprisingly stupid) Chloé. Realisation seemed to flash over Stoneheart as he also grabbed the screaming blonde.

Stoneheart kicked the wall facing the street in, collapsing a hole for him to leave by with his prizes.

"Come on class we need to leave!" Miss Bustier tried to organize them, while Alya ran to the gaping hole.

"What do we do?" Rose whispered to them as they moved to the front of the classroom. "Is Mylène going to be alright?"

"Sure she will." Juleka reassured. "We've got two superheroes now!"

"Come on! Let's follow him!" Alya said to the trio eagerly.

"Uh…Oh-" Marinette stuttered, only for Juleka to grin at Alya's idea.

"That'd be awesome!" She agreed. "I want to make sure Mylène's okay, too!"

Marinette exchanged a desperate glance with Rose. If the blonde spoke up then Juleka would agree to sit it out but alas, Rose wasn't the most assertive of people. Neither was Marinette herself, really.

And so while Miss Bustier led the class to the library, the foursome broke off for the main doors.

* * *

Once they were out on the street, Alya immediately regretted her impulsive decision to ask them to tag along. She wanted to show them how brave she was seeing as they had been impressed by it before, but now it would make transforming quite difficult.

When they reached a turn to the right they were sure Stoneheart had gone down, Alya also realised another problem. The stone minions were now active.

"Duck!" Alya bellowed, pushing Marinette down by the shoulders.

Just in time too, as a yellow car sailed above them. Looking back she had saw that Juleka had grabbed Rose and was shouting to them to run.

Making a quick decision, the remaining pair ran to the side of the street, one which they immediately regretted as a grey car this time was thrown by one of the minions towards Chat Noir down the street, only for an unlucky bounce to send it towards them.

Chat Noir's baton sailed through the air, catching the car in time to prevent it crushing the pair. Unfortunately, there were two of them, and there was a likely chance one of them would end up splattered due to there being not enough room.

Marinette shouted something in her ear, and the next thing Alya knew was that she was on the concrete, avoiding the underside front of the car which would have likely killed her.

"Run! Go and get help!" Marinette called out from behind the vehicle.

Shaking from the brush with death that was prevented by her classmate, Alya did as she was bid, going around the corner to transform.

* * *

Marinette was running solely off adrenaline at this point, and that was slowly wearing off, making way for the terror to set in.

 _Stupid!_ She cursed to herself,  _stupid stupid stupid!_

Why did she follow them into danger?! She should've spoken up, and then they wouldn't have nearly died. She knew Rose and Juleka were safe, and she hoped that Alya had listened and had gone for help.

She hadn't even had time to think before she had shoved the girl away, running on pure instinct. All she could do was think about how lucky they had been that Chat Noir's quick thinking had saved both their lives. Oh god, he was fighting those things and now didn't have his staff thing!

Just to compound matters, she heard the car groaning and scraping against the wall, slowly sinking down.

Thinking quickly, she jumped up and began trying to climb out, which only made the car seek to ground itself all the quicker with the added weight. Before the thing collapsed fully with her under, she was grabbed by the elbows and pulled out in one quick action.

Marinette panted, trying to get her breath back and calm her heart as she rested her shaking legs. Her hands and knees felt sore from the stones under them, but the pain was reassuring; she had very nearly died.

"Are you alright?" Her rescuer asked her over the bang as the car righted itself.

"I- yeah, yeah. Thanks!" She answered, looking up and now seeing who it was.

"No problem." Vixen straightened, before continuing. "Your friend Alya saw me and alerted me; I've already told her to head home don't worry. You best do the same!"

"Wait!" Marinette called before the superhero could run off. Grabbing Chat's baton from the street floor, she handed it over. "He'll need this. Please, erm… tell him I said thank you, for saving me." She added nervously.

An emotion Marinette couldn't place flashed across Vixen's features, but just as fast as it appeared it was gone. "I will." She promised. "Now get to safety!"

Nodding, Marinette retreated for the way the foursome had originally came down. If she got home in time she'd catch the live broadcast of whatever was happening.

* * *

Chat Noir squirmed, mentally berating himself. He simply wasn't suited to fighting Stoneheart and his minions, given that one of his key strengths was physical combat, something which only seemed to  _help_ this guy.

In his defence though, it wasn't completely his fault that he had gotten captured; he honestly hadn't expected to see four people from his school to turn up in the street while he was trying to lead the minions chasing him away from the depths of the city.

 _That bloody Alya!_ He fumed, angry at having been forced to give up his baton due to the girl's foolishness. In the short time he knew Marinette he could easily tell she wasn't the type to charge mindlessly into danger. After all, someone who dealt with Chloé for four years would know when to pick their fights.

Alya though had proven out of the gate she didn't know when to let something go, and he also knew it was her who had filmed the first fight with him and Vixen against Stoneheart, having seen her website last night when looking for any news stories related to the events at the stadium.

So to see her with her bloody phone out at the end of the street with Marinette, Rose and Juleka really irritated him. Rose and Marinette had clearly not wanted to be there, Juleka seemed to be immediately regretting her decision, and Alya was too busy recording him avoiding being pulverized.

They had the presence of mind to avoid the first car which relieved him, hoping they'd clear the area so he could concentrate, only for the second one to bounce towards Alya and Marinette against the wall.

Panicking at the thought of his first proper friend being flattened from something aimed at him, he hadn't hesitated in throwing his baton to save her. Unfortunately there simply hadn't been enough room, but Marinette, brave Marinette, shoved the girl who got her into the situation out of harm's way.

And now here he was, baton-less, and his friend was trapped and unable to move behind a car. A car which could fall any second.

He squirmed and fought harder to get out of the golem's grip, but to no avail.

_Where the hell is that fox?!_

"Chat Noir, here!"

_Finally!_

He felt his baton glide by his hand, his quick reflexes just catching it. Taking the initiative, he extended it, forcing himself from the grip of the stone being. Not hesitating, he made for the side of the street, avoiding the stone beings attempts to recapture him.

"What took you so long?" He grunted after scaling the building, glaring at the fox themed hero, crouching down beside her.

"Was caught up as a civilian." Came the sharp reply.

"Whatever." He replied shortly. "Stoneheart is heading for the Eiffel Tower, he has two hostages. I'll meet you there."

Before he could move off, Vixen gripped his shoulder tightly.

"Where are you going?"

Unable to stop the feline-like hiss that came forth, Chat Noir eyed the offending extremity.

"Unhand me." He growled.

She did so, but repeated her question.

"A f-… Civilian is trapped behind a car a few blocks back, some girl dragged her friends out for the spectacle and it didn't end well." He explained shortly, eyes looking down the way he had came, but carefully watching the stone beings moving off out of the corner of his vision.

"She's fine; I got her out from behind it. She's actually the one who gave me your baton."

Chat snorted.  _Of course she did, seems like it's typical of her to put others first,_ he thought fondly.

Vixen mistook it for derision it seemed, given the glare she gave him.

"It's alright to need help." She said lowly. "It's not too late to-"

"I meant what I said last night." Chat cut her off. "We're not teammates. I'll work with you when need be, but not for you."

Vixen sighed. "I don't want you to work  _for-"_

"Whatever. We've got a job to do."

Without waiting for her, he raced off in the direction of France's most famous landmark.

First she wants him to focus on the job, now she's trying to buddy up. At this point, Chat didn't care. He wasn't a house cat, she couldn't  _train_ him to do as he was told; he had enough of doing that for his father. Sit, smile for the camera, be a good son. Roll over, go to fencing because  _he_ done it. Sing and meow, learn Mandarin because  _that's essential_ in international business. Same old, same old.

He was  _tired_ of it.

Through the rush of the wind as he ran and jumped from roof to roof, he heard the faint tinkling of the bell on his suit's zipper.

 _I am no collared house cat, I'm my own person!_ He hissed mentally, remembering what Plagg had said about channelling the destructive energy within him.

His left hand glowed ominously with the energy usually reserved for a charged Cataclysm, albeit far weaker. He gripped the little golden bell viciously, taking satisfaction as it yielded to him. While it would normally be just as indestructible as the rest of the suit, he was the wearer. It answered to him. And he wanted it  _gone._

The gold rusted, melting to nothingness. Chat couldn't tell if the grim thrum of satisfaction and rush of energy was from the act of destroying it or the feeling Plagg had warned him of.

* * *

Marinette watched on the television in her room as Vixen purified the deceptively fragile butterfly that was supposedly the cause of Ivan's transformation.

A haunting song the superhero played echoed through Paris, one she could hear without the live feed's audio. It was like a wash of warm air had struck her, and the television showed the people who had been infected by the butterfly were changing back to normal.

Like the rest of Paris however, she now knew that more was to come. Hawk Moth had revealed himself and his goal. 'Miraculous' was the word used, one which had the theorists and the news already buzzing. The general consensus was that a Miraculous was what gave the superheroes and villain their power.

Chloé had very nearly died after Stoneheart had responded to the mayor's demand to return his daughter all too enthusiastically. Vixen had only just managed to catch the girl, drifting down gently before returning to the fight.

It had been intense with some close calls for the pair of superheroes, made more difficult by the presence of the three stone beings at first in such close quarters. Vixen had apparently judged it threatening enough to use her superpower.

The superheroes apparently had various powers, and it turned out that the illusions were  _not_ actually Vixen's main power. Rather like Chat Noir and his baton, it was her tool for fighting. The television hadn't been able to make out what it was she had said, but it had certainly showed what it done.

The fox themed superhero summoned nine blue balls of flame that orbited her with one forever at the tip of her tail, the rest darting to and fro thereby making the stone beings warily keep their distance.

In all honesty to Marinette, it was spooky. Those balls seemed to shimmer and move like they had a life of their own.

The wisps wreaked havoc among the stone beings on the same platform as the heroes; circling them at dizzying speeds before suddenly erupting into a column of angry fire to startle them while also darting towards their eyes. Suffice to say, the stone beings were chased off their platform to fall to the one below, allowing the two to focus on Stoneheart.

Eventually Vixen had tricked Stoneheart during their fight into briefly thinking he had dropped Mylène long enough to make him  _actually_ drop her and the evil-butterfly-infected item.

Chat Noir had snatched Mylène almost as soon as she left Stoneheart's fist while batting the item to Vixen with his baton to break and purify.

Once the item broke, Ivan was returned to normal, and the song did the same for the rest of the victims. Property damage however existed, and would be one of the many things dealt with in the aftermath of the attack.

Once the superheroes had returned Marinette's classmates safely to the ground, Chat Noir took off without warning, while Vixen remained to talk with the police, mayor and reporters.

It was… strange to see. The superhero was confident in front of the camera, promising to continue protecting Paris and its people, and reassured that she did indeed plan on working closely with the law enforcement and was planning on discussing it with the mayor.

It was from the brief question-and-answer session Vixen had with the reporters on scene that Marinette, along with the rest of Paris, learned about what exactly was going on and what had happened.

Hawk Moth was a supervillain misusing a Miraculous, the item that gave them their powers. An akuma was the term for the strange little butterflies that changed the victims into the monstrous creatures. The people themselves were indeed victims, as the akuma struck during emotional weakness, and did not deserve punishment for anything they had done while under the change. Eventually the term "akumatized" was coined to describe the change they had undergone.

Rose and Juleka called her barely a moment after Vixen had ended the interview to leave. The pair had been worried about her and Alya's well-being after the attack, having returned to Juleka's home since it was the closest.

She spend the next few minutes reassuring her two friends that both she and Alya were okay and were safe, while also dissuading Juleka of blaming herself.

"I shouldn't have agreed to go," she told Marinette morosely over the phone, "it was dangerous, and I shouldn't have dragged you into it."

"It's not your fault," Marinette repeated firmly, "and if it is, we're also to blame; we should've spoke up before then, it's not just down to you!"

She heard Rose chirp an agreement in the background, and Juleka sighed.

"I- I guess so." She said, her mood noticeably improved.

"It's not your fault." Marinette reiterated. "I don't blame you and neither does Rose, so please don't over think it Juleka."

"Thank you Marinette." Juleka said after a brief moment of silence on either end. "I really don't see what Chloé has against you, you're too nice."

Marinette blushed, trying to offer some sort of answer through her stuttering.

Juleka laughed it off on the other end of the phone. "We'll see you tomorrow okay?"

Marinette affirmed it before hanging up on the call.

Surprisingly, even including the near death experience and the fact there would now be a supervillain terrorising the city, she had had probably her best start to a school year ever. Hopefully tomorrow though she'd be able to see the whole day through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't hesitate to point out any mistakes, big or small!
> 
> Edit 19th Jan: The duplicate story you saw was me trying to figure out how the draft function works on this, please ignore this fault and it has now been deleted.


	3. Respite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien and Plagg talk post-Stoneheart, then the next day Adrien and Marinette experience a normal day at school. Gabriel struggles with fatherhood, including dealing with his sons upcoming birthday and his new friendship with a girl. 
> 
> Gabriel then reveals something astounding to Adrien.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That duplicate story you perhaps saw was me trying and failing to make a draft of this chapter to proof read. I posted it thinking I was posting it as a draft, alas, I'm still learning to work Ao3.
> 
> Anyway, on with the story!

* * *

 

"If you didn't like the bell you could've just told me, I'd have removed it come the next transformation." Plagg scolded Adrien, who shrugged indifferently.

The conversation had started as soon as they were alone in his room. Adrien had sneakily returned to school after defeating Stoneheart, only for them all to be sent home anyway.

"I didn't like it." He answered.

"I thought it was cute!" Plagg argued, grinning.

"The jingling was getting annoying." Adrien said, ignoring the knowing look Plagg shot him.

"Yes, the jingling." The Kwami repeated sarcastically. "Whatever, kid. You done well today though."

Adrien shot Plagg a grateful smile, before it morphed into a slight frown.

"How often do akuma attacks usually happen?" He asked. He really didn't want to have this be a daily thing, he wanted a normal day at school tomorrow.

Plagg gave a noncommittal noise. "Varies from Wielder to Wielder and Miraculous to Miraculous. Akumas are… strange things. They don't take much energy to make, but they're costly, and they stretch concentration."

"How so?" Adrien enquired.

"Well, you can have quite a lot of akumas at any point as you saw today, but they usually come from one single akuma in most cases when it's had the chance to run free after being released. These duplicates will usually be mindless in their course of action."

"What do you mean? Those stone beings didn't look mindless to me."

"Well that's because it's the Butterfly Miraculous. Stoneheart had the original akuma which made a link between him and this Hawk Moth guy. The rest just done what Stoneheart commanded, they had no independence."

Plagg sighed at seeing Adrien's still confused face.

"Right, right, better example, hmm…" The Kwami murmured, thinking to himself, before brightening. "How about I made it more personal, then? A cat akuma?"

"Cat akuma?"

"Remember what I told you about the superstition of black cats being bad luck in Europe? Down to an old Wielder of mine who went bad. You see, the cat akuma you'd create you'd share a… link with. Not telepathic or seeing through their eyes like Hawk Moth can, he can do that since it's a bastardized use of Nooroo's Chosen Champion power. You'd get impressions, brief glimpses and the like from the akuma. I remember Eloy, the guy who really kicked off the superstition, his first ever akuma he had set on another guy he had had a... disagreement with. Any time the man went to spar, he always stumbled or tripped at the worst moments, making him lose every time. Embarrassing, and dangerous. The guy nearly died at once point. Infection back then could be killer."

"What does that have to do with duplicates?" Adrien enquired curiously.

"Because it was  _only_ when he sparred, and it was  _only_ stumbling and tripping. There was a purpose behind it. A duplicate cat akuma would just inflict generic bad luck without a specific target. It's the same with the butterfly. The chosen has the main powers, the link and the brains. The rest are just copies, mindless unless personally directed by the original."

"You said they usually come from a single akuma," Adrien pondered, "could he potentially just save them up then release them as a group? As in, make an akuma one week, save it, then make another the next and send both out? Because we could be in trouble then."

"In theory, yes. In practice? It's really not so easy to do."

"Why?" Adrien asked.

He didn't want to go into any fights blind, it had cost them dearly the first time around.

What was it M. D'Argencourt always said? 'If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles'. He needed to know what akumas and Hawk Moth were capable of, and he needed to know the extent of his powers, something more necessary now seeing as he planned to work without backup.

Plagg groaned. "You ask  _so many_ questions, kid. I don't remember any of my other Wielders being this annoying."

Adrien stared stonily at the Kwami, unmoved.

"Fine. Get me cheese first though."

 _I really need to think of an excuse for the chefs,_ Adrien pondered as he sliced a piece of camembert off the cheese tray he had requested for the coffee table in his room.

Once Plagg was done nibbling at the piece he had, he continued.

"Akumas take more energy to maintain than to actually make. One is standard, two is pushing it, and three are the most I've seen, though that particular fight lasted about four minutes total, seeing as that idiot went into a coma for about a week."

Well, it was reassuring to know that unless they actually confronted Hawk Moth, the attacks would keep to a single akuma.

They sat in companionable silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Plagg. I was unfair to you since the beginning." Adrien confessed quietly. "It- none of this was your fault."

"It's fine, kid." Plagg chuckled. "You were upset, I get it. It wasn't the best of beginnings for either of us, eh? We'll work through this. Like I said, you done good there, and you'll just be improving past this point."

Adrien paused briefly, before asking. "Can you teach me the other powers I have?"

Plagg snorted. "Yes I can, and I will. But in due time. Try relaxing for now, you've earned it. I know I will be."

Adrien nodded, slightly unsatisfied with the answer, but didn't voice it.

"Tell you what," Plagg said suddenly, surprising the teenager, "This weekend if you're up for it, I'll start teaching you something you'll find pretty useful. It's called 'Black Hole'. Until then, practice with manipulating the destruction energy, the bell was a good start (though completely unnecessary), but start smaller, finer. Like a single petal off a flower."

Adrien agreed eagerly, nodding his approval.

"Now, seems only fair since you've been asking me non-stop that I get to ask a few things I've been wondering."

Adrien nodded though this time slowly, unsure of the direction this was going.

"Both times you've transformed you've done it so I have to ask: what sort of nerd are you that you had a transformation sequence pre-planned, without knowing magic exists?"

* * *

 

 _So this is a normal day at school,_ Adrien mused as he sat in his morning class.

Adrien had actually arrived early today, and as such he had been pleased to see Rose and Juleka near the entrance to the school. He hadn't been sure if most arrived early or not, but it relived him to see two familiar faces that he knew were friends of Marinette.

He introduced himself to them properly, talked with them for a bit before enquiring when Marinette usually arrived.

Rose had giggled, explaining to him that Marinette was notoriously usually either late, or arriving just on time. She apparently did not agree with mornings. The last two days had been out of the ordinary for her, but Juleka told him confidently and with fondness it simply wouldn't last. A week, at best, she had said.

Marinette did indeed arrive early though, and had seemed pleased to see them. She greeted them enthusiastically before telling Juleka apparently again that nothing of what occurred yesterday was her fault. Adrien guessed she must have been blaming herself over their little adventure. Not long after that, they had gone to class.

"You never said, what exactly happened yesterday? With you and Juleka I mean?" Adrien asked in a mixture of curiosity and caution while they waited on the teacher. All he knew about their involvement yesterday was what little he had seen, deduced, and what Vixen had told him.

"We were... kinda stupid," Marinette confessed sheepishly to him. "Alya suggested we, that is me, Juleka and Rose, follow Stoneheart, and we did. Only we ended up getting a bit too close for comfort. We nearly got flattened by a car,  _twice._ Luckily nobody was hurt, Chat Noir saved us the second time and Vixen pulled me out from behind the car."

Adrien knew she was leaving out a few details, such as saving Alya's life and retrieving Chat Noir's baton, but there was no way he could broach the subjects.  _Adrien_ hadn't been there.

"Behind a car?" He reiterated instead, shooting her a look of worry that was genuine. While Vixen had said she got her out, he didn't know if there were any injuries. "What happened? Were you hurt? Did you-"

"Calm down." She half whispered, half giggled to him before giving his shoulder a reassuring clasp. Adrien found he rather liked the sound of her laugh and the contact she gave him, and couldn't help his little sideways smile as he avoided meeting her eyes.

His mother had always been the one to initiate physical contact and comfort before, his father simply not that sort of person. And well, the less said about Chloé's unwanted advances, the better. But with Marinette, he couldn't help but lean in when she done so, instead of shying away as he usually did. Adrien had never considered himself needy or attention seeking before, but he couldn't deny he did have a habit of lingering in the friendly gestures with Marinette. Especially when it was shoulder touches.

"The car was going to squash us against the wall, but Chat Noir threw his baton at it and redirected it to just be in front. No I wasn't hurt, thankfully." Marinette paused, frowning. "I honestly wish I could say thank you to him. I know it's the superhero thing to fight supervillain, protect the people and all that, but he did save my life, you know?"

_I do._

"W-well, maybe you can say something to him, maybe the next time you see him?" Adrien suggested.

Marinette snorted quietly. "As if. One, I've learned my lesson: no running at the akumas. Two, it's really unlikely we'll run into each other again, seeing as I will be  _not_  running at the akumas."

Mme. Bustier had entered the classroom a few minutes later, the picture of nervousness. She took the register without wavering, and then promptly sat down as the class looked on, baffled. Once the clock indicated that the lesson had supposed to start five minutes ago, she relaxed.

"Seems like we're back to normality for now!" She had announced cheerfully. "I do have one request though: if you are thinking about temporarily becoming a supervillain, kindly wait until  _after_ school hours. We do have a curriculum to get through!"

The class laughed while Ivan sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, and from then it progressed normally, at least Adrien assumed so.

He had initially been worried about being behind everyone else, but it turned out that he was actually ahead of his year group. Adrien put it down to the education from tutors his father had got him.

As long as they worked Mme. Bustier allowed them to talk, which Adrien happily did quietly with Marinette, as they discussed light topics about themselves.

He discovered that she had a duel heritage, which he had guessed given her name Dupain-Cheng, and her parents owned a bakery.

She learned that he was incidentally fluent in Mandarin ("Oh Maman will love you!" Marinette had laughed when he told her) and that he played basketball frequently and was a proficient fencer.

"Instrument of choice?" He asked her.

Marinette giggled. "Does whistling count?"

"I'm not sure your mouth is technically an instrument, unless it's singing." Adrien laughed quietly, eyes drawn to said red lipstick lips, before distracting himself by informing her he took piano lessons.

"My father insists on them, and fencing, and Chinese…" He explained, not quite hiding the grimace.

"I'd guessed Gabriel Agreste was strict, but…" Marinette trailed off, playing with her pen as she contemplated the closed reading task between them.

Adrien smiled, he knew she was talented in fashion design having been shown one of her many sketchbooks, and that his father was one of her idols.

"He's just as human as anyone else, albeit a bit demanding sometimes. He has high expectations and standards." He stated neutrally, before moving onto more cheerful topics.

Eventually they sank into silence while Marinette worked through the questions. Adrien meanwhile had finished already, and was beginning to get nervous. What did he do? Offer his answers? Say something? Stay quiet? Usually he did some of Chloé's for her whenever she had visited before, either out of boredom or the quaintness of doing school homework.

Chloé's favourite topics of discussion were herself, her father and complaining about others. Adrien hadn't done much talking in their friendship, as he had commonly just listened, though he did prefer it that way with her.

Should he ask Marinette more about herself? But they're in class and he was done, and she wasn't. Would he just be distracting her? Should he talk about the work, then? But what?

A brief glance to his right quickly notified that Marinette had been watching his most likely clear worry and nervousness cycle on his face for quite some moments.

_Ohno she's looking at me she knows abort abort-_

"You're done already?" She whispered, surprised. A quick glance at her eyes showed they were directed at his tablet. Oh no, he should've offered-

"I- yeah, I have." He answered, licking his lips, which were suddenly quite dry.

Marinette had zeroed in on the action, but didn't say anything to him, which briefly made him panic. Do you not do that while talking to someone? Was it impolite or gross like picking-

"Did you put 'c' for the multiple choice question on six?" She asked him suddenly and quickly, pulling him from his thoughts.

"Yes?" He answered/asked.

"Oh good if you put it then it's probably right then." Marinette said to him before moving onto seven, not noticing Adrien's blush.

"So what's it like? Modelling, I mean. I'm guessing it's fashion and runway modelling that you do?"

Adrien brightened. Finally, fashion! A safe, easy topic!

* * *

 

 _Recess comes too early,_ Marinette grumbled to herself.

Her conversation about modelling with Adrien had turned to discussing several upcoming winter  _Gabriel_ pieces this November, but their talk came to a halt when they met up with some of the other classmates.

Adrien himself was a walking conundrum. In class when he was talking to her he seemed almost tense, like he was walking on eggshells. It confused and worried her, as they had been alright the day before, being able to talk with ease, but today he'd occasionally slip into nervousness. Was she making him uncomfortable somehow?

Then recess comes where they're with Juleka, Rose, Mylène, Alix and Ivan, it was like someone had flipped a switch where Adrien is suddenly all ear to ear smiles and straight backed posture. He even took the occasional (every thirty seconds it felt like) fangirl asking for something signed in his stride. He's beaming at their classmates, flashing the occasional grin for good measure; while whenever he had talked to Marinette he just had this little half smile and smirk. It confused her.

 _Maybe it's me,_ Marinette wondered, stomach dropping.  _He sat down there yesterday and now he's stuck beside me, maybe he's regretting it. Wouldn't be the first time someone's done that..._

Was that why he was okay talking with others there? Maybe she was just over-thinking it.  _Maybe._

"It's your birthday next Tuesday, right?" Rose was saying when Marinette started paying attention again. They'd never actually asked about birthdays, damn it. She probably should've asked. Wait, next week? Then she was the older of the two, seeing as she was already fifteen! Oh she was  _so_ rubbing it in later.

"Yeah, it is. How'd you know?" Adrien asked her.

"W-well it's not you know, ever, I mean-every day someone famous goes to your school, let alone your class!" Rose stammered.

Adrien continued to look perplexed.

"She looked you up, Agreste," Ivan sighed, taking pity before suddenly smiling knowingly, "I think she was just trying to be, ahem,  _thorough,_ in her  _research_ of you _._ " The larger boy laughed, patting Adrien on the back.

" _Ivan!_ " Rose shrieked while Alix howled with laughter. Mylène was blushing herself, and Juleka was telling her best friend how she had walked into that one. Adrien, bless him, still looked confused.

Sighing, Marinette tugged on the taller boy's sleeve to which he accommodated her immediately by leaning his head, offering his ear.

"He means your modelling shoot pictures; you might have a  _fan_  now." She whispered to him before pulling away quickly, worried she'd overstepped her bounds.

Adrien's cheeks were bright red, but he still shot Rose a cheeky grin.

"Well I'd like to think the real thing's better." He practically  _purred_  at the blonde, eliciting a fresh round of laughs while making poor Rose blush harder.

 _He is right though,_ Marinette agreed. She had also researched her new friend. Purely to find out just how famous he was, of course. He was the son of her idol, after all.

Up until this point, Marinette had thought of him as a bit of a dork. But seeing 'Mr Casanova' simply reinforced it, poor Rose. The only thing that could solidify his status as dork extraordinaire was if he-

"Don't get too bigheaded now Pretty Boy," Alix snorted, punching him lightly on the shoulder, "no need to worry Rosey, we'll protect you from the leering rich kid."

Adrien gasped dramatically. "I'm hurt, Alix. Why I'm practically a  _model_ gentleman!"

Marinette groaned audibly while the others laughed, ignoring Adrien's unrepentant grin as he watched her reaction.

 _Puns, as if I don't hear them enough from Papa now that I'll hear them at school,_ Marinette whimpered.  _Is this how Dad Jokes start out?_

It was confirmed: her best friend was a complete dork.

Adrien groaned, glaring at the mirror in front of the sink in the bathroom. They only had a few minutes of break left before class resumed, so he took the time to go to the lavatory; not because he needed to go, but because he needed a few moments to actually pull himself together.

" _'Model gentleman',_ oh god, I really underestimated how much of a dork you really are!" The Kwami hovering beside him wheezed. "This is amazing!"

"Shut up, it was good." Adrien countered feebly.

Puns were clever and witty, all the animes done it so if it was a consistent thing they must be good, seeing as they were a popular source of entertainment! When he made the joke in front of a group, it got some laughs as expected (because puns are awesome), but the groan from Marinette puzzled him. It was a great joke; at least he had thought so. Then he had the thought:

Were they laughing  _at_ him, instead of  _with_ him, and that was why she hadn't?

It was this train of thought that led him to excusing himself for a quick break, he was quite worried he had embarrassed himself and by extension Marinette, seeing as she was the one who had introduced him to them.

The flirtation thing though in truth, had been a rather spur of the moment thing. Adrien wasn't fully comfortable with it, seeing as he never really had much experience at doing so but plenty at receiving (Chloé and a few of the other models he had worked with before could be quite, how to put it,  _forward_ ) but it had seemed like the right thing to do at the time. That is, playing along with the others.

He knew objectively he was attractive; it wouldn't do for a model to  _not_ be, seeing as a good part of their job was looking pretty. It was a little strange and awkward however to see said job mentioned casually among classmates, but he had noticed that Rose and Mylène seemed to be equally as awkward around it.

It was... odd. Flattering, yes, but odd. He thought the whole flirting thing was just joking around, yet Rose had only blushed more. He honestly didn't know what you were supposed to do  _after_ it.

Marinette hadn't reacted at all, and had only groaned at his brilliant pun, though in retrospect it could be debatable if the others had actually liked it or not. She hadn't reacted at all to his flirting either, maybe because it wasn't directed at her?

The thought made Adrien feel several things, most prominent being how would she react then?

_No. Nonono, bad thoughts._

"Still, your new girlfriend seemed receptive to your terrible flirting." Plagg snorted.

"Not my girlfriend." Adrien didn't hesitate in retorting.

"Not your girlfriend." Plagg agreed. "That's the dark haired one, isn't it?" Plagg laughed harder when he blushed.

"It's- She's- No. It's just not like that. We've known each other for  _two_ days!" Adrien hastily told him.

"Really, why not? And what does the time have to do with it?" Plagg asked while ignoring the second part of his sentence, sounding utterly disinterested.

"She's my friend." Adrien argued. "Right now, my best friend. You don't-  _get with,_ your best friend. Yeah she's pretty," here though he couldn't help but redden while Plagg laughed, Adrien nonetheless ploughed on, "but if I say anything it could ruin it! Besides,  _two days!_ yEven if I did like her in that way (which I don't Plagg, shut up), you just don't after knowing them for such a short period of time."

As much as he wanted to do nothing but make friends, Adrien was still awkward around it. He already had a busy schedule and now he had school on top of it. If he went around making friends he wouldn't be able to properly spend time with many of them, and then it would cause issues if it was seen as him prioritising some over others.

Plus, making friends was difficult and nerve racking. It was easier with Marinette who he'd just  _clicked_ with.

Talking to someone else though, having social interaction in the form of a meaningful conversation? That was difficult, seeing as he genuinely didn't have much experience of it and was generally clueless of  _what_ it entailed. As a model he only kept to replies and it was usually about the job itself. The staff during shoots and at home were strictly professional, none of them really the type to make idle conversation, and his friendship with Chloé in the conversation department was heavily one sided. The less said about the now strained relationship with his father, the better.

Marinette was the only one in class he could honestly call a friend (his previous female friend had completely stopped talking to him, having said something about him seeing sense soon enough) so far, though Ivan was inching towards the same status.

They had gotten along fine yesterday, but it was only today that it had hit him just how  _pretty_ she was, which made talking to her all the harder. He had no experience with this sort of thing; Adrien was utterly clueless as to  _what_ you were supposed to do. He was unashamed to admit that a few times he did ham up the dorkiness just to hear her giggle at his antics.

 _God, I'm a hopeless sap,_ Adrien realised. His mother always did say he was a romantic, given his preference in stories. Beauty and the Beast was one of his favourites, along with similar 'happily ever after' tales. He was a bit of a dreamer.

Her smile, though. It… reminded him of happier times. When Marinette shot him that beautiful smile the first time in the classroom after professing him a friend, he felt the weight that he hadn't realised had settled since his mother's disappearance lift.

But…

He didn't want to ruin things with Marinette, but at the same time, he wanted to try something new and exciting. And that scared him. Being rebellious and running off to public school was one thing, same with moonlighting as a superhero. Asking out a pretty girl who just happened to be your best friend, though? That was risky and terrifying.

 _It's just a crush,_ he thought to himself.  _Give it time, it'll pass._

Adrien was used to disappointment, he had lived with it for too long not to be. But this was one time he didn't want to risk being disappointed. It was a little scary how quickly he had gotten attracted to her.

He wanted to  _try_ , but he also wanted to still have their budding friendship, something he could end up throwing to the winds if he tried.

This would've been so much easier if it was Chat Noir who had the opportunity. Then he could pun and flirt as shamelessly as he wanted, and throw caution to the winds, because if it didn't work out, no biggie. It was Chat Noir, the only person he could embarrass would be himself, which entailed zero repercussions. Truly, his persona really had no shame.

Adrien Agreste couldn't exactly do that, he had argued for public schooling because of the potential bad PR pulling out would cause. It wouldn't help his argument for continuing if he went about  _causing_ the bad PR. He could see the teenage magazine headlines now; Adrien Agreste: Shameless Playboy Flirt gets shot down!

God, what was he thinking?! His first, here he gulped,  _girlfriend,_ would have to deal with the spotlight that was being with him, the many fangirls which reminded him daily that they also filled his school, and the general stress of their every move being analysed and calculated. Adrien already hated it himself, he wouldn't wish it on Marinette of all people. She was a friendly girl, but he could already tell she had some serious self-esteem issues and could be painfully shy. It would be cruel to just shove her into the spotlight like that!

She had barely talked once during the conversation during interval, opting to hide slightly behind him even though it was  _her_ who had introduced him, and apparently he had missed her giving out macarons on the first day. Chloé had told him she'd done it for popularity and Adrien found himself agreeing, though not in her cynically thought version. To him, it seemed like a quiet attempt at reaching out, and he had in fact considered doing something similar. His father done that often enough, lavishing Adrien with gifts in place of affection he didn't know how to give.

The only reason he hadn't done so was because he had no clue what you were supposed to gift, and the fact all it would likely do would be emphasising what a rich boy he was. He didn't want to be like his father, bribing for affection over genuine thoughtfulness and kindness.

But Marinette wasn't like that. He could imagine her being sweet enough, hopeful enough and kind enough to share out treats for the class.

_It'll pass. Don't tempt fate, you'll just ruin what you have. Being greedy as Chat Noir is one thing, as Adrien it's a no._

The outcome could be not just a level of awkwardness that could kill their friendship, but it becoming public gossip that resulted in his father pulling him out of school.

"You know," Plagg started, "She is the first girl you've actually made friends with, right? Not in that weird thing you described with that other one."

"Yes." Adrien answered cautiously.

"Could be you're just getting overly attached to the first scraps of affection you've had in a while." The kwami shrugged. "But what do I know?"

That... made a disturbing amount of sense that he did consider it possible. Adrien knew that his isolation hadn't been healthy, his only interactions with others his age being whenever Chloé had bothered to visit or modelling related events where he wasn't the only subject for photographing.

He was briefly startled when the bell signalling the end of recess sounded.

"Would it be wrong to just not care?" Adrien asked once it stopped, before wondering why he was still considering it a possible course of action when he  _knew_ it was a bad idea.

Plagg snorted. "You're asking  _me_ if it's wrong to not care about something?"

He was right, that was pretty stupid of Adrien.

It's just... he didn't want to ruin what he was already developing here! He could talk to Marinette in class, and at their first recess with her friends he had amped it up to make a good impression on them! It seemed to go pretty well, anyway. Sort of.

Plus, that pretty much seemed to be what was expected of him, right? The magazines always referenced how dreamy he was and painfully often mentioned how he was a 'teenage heartthrob' over the fact he enjoyed watching animes such as Sailor Moon. In fairness though he wouldn't be admitting that in interviews, much less the fact it was the inspiration for what Plagg dubbed his "transformation sequence." It was just a phase, okay? He never imagined he could  _actually_ put it to use… though if Adrien had to be honest, his biggest inspiration for his character of Chat Noir and general role model in life was Tamaki Suoh. Man, that guy was both hilarious and suave.

Adrien straightened, realising something. He hadn't really tried joking around with Marinette herself yet, and that was a key part of friendship, he was pretty sure. So maybe he  _should_ try it with Marinette?

Plus, she had groaned at his pun!

That was a slight he could not tolerate. Nobody maintains a straight face at an excellent pun. It's simply a travesty, an insult.

 _It is decided then,_ Adrien firmly held eye contact with himself in the mirror.  _I **will** get her to laugh at a pun._

If he had voiced this, Plagg would have vehemently advised against it.

 _Friends first,_ Adrien reminded himself.  _It's just a crush, for now. It's natural. Give it time, it'll fade. And if it doesn't, well… cross that bridge when you get to it._

* * *

 

Marinette was all sorts of confused.

Adrien had told them not to wait up for him and he'd meet them in class and so they had returned when the bell went.

Everything was deceptively normal as they unpacked for chemistry, Marinette taking her usual placement with Mylène slotting in behind her.

Then it happened. Adrien walked in, casual as you like (he was even whistling so inconspicuously that it was conspicuous in and of itself), and slid into his seat beside her. Indeed, they sat beside each other in every class they had together, the only exception being she had her free periods when he had P.E and vice versa when she had Art and Design. Now, she had only known him for a grand total of two days (one being cut short) but she had a feeling in her gut that something had changed.

"Today we'll be discussing atoms, for some this will be revision but do pay attention." Mme. Medeliev announced, beginning her lecture after silently taking attendance. "Do take notes as well. Atoms are made up of three smaller particles, these being electrons, protons and neutrons. Electrons are negatively charged particles that spin…"

"Don't trust atoms, Marinette." Adrien suddenly whispered beside her, going unnoticed by their teacher who was now illustrating a diagram on the board. "They  _make up_  everything."

For a good few seconds, Marinette blanked, her fingers hovering over the keyboard of her tablet. Slowly, she turned to stare at her friend.

Her friend who was giving the  _same_ lopsided grin the last time he had punned, and seemed to be waiting for something.

_Oh God, please no._

"Did you just-…" She managed, as the grin slid into the familiar half smirk.

"I did." Adrien honest to goodness  _preened_ smugly, before going back to taking notes while she tried to continue while also understanding the sudden change. Adrien hadn't been exactly  _shy_  per-say yesterday and today, but Marinette couldn't honestly remember if he'd made a pun before when it was  _just_  them. He seemed more of the quiet kind if anything, disregarding when other people were present of course.

 _Maybe he's just coming out of his shell,_ she reasoned.  _Maybe he's not just an awkward dork, but a genuine nerd. Or it was a one off lame science pun._

Then not a minute later as if to deliberately prove her wrong, it happened again.

"-Now protons are positively charged particles," Mme. Medeliev was saying, her normally eagle eyes not spotting Marinette's brief moment of inattention, "they are contained in the  _nucleus_ of the atom, the centre that is, they have a mass of…"

"Hey Mari, do you have eleven protons?" Adrien murmured beside her, the light breath tickling the side of her neck (which was unrelated to her heart speeding up slightly or the shiver), "Because you're  _sodium_ fine."

Marinette swallowed, fighting the blush threatening to rise. The line itself was  _baaad,_ and she was pretty sure Nino had barely told her it last year during a moment when they couldn't stop laughing when Alix fell right off her chair as a result from the sodium experiment, whereupon a small cube was placed in water. The result was rather… explosive. They had ended up being split by Mme. Medeliev only two weeks into the class, as they simply couldn't go ten minutes without either of them laughing. God, she'd need to catch up with Nino sometime. She missed him and his playlists, she still used some of the old, more relaxing mixes for when she was designing.

No, what really got her was the way he said her name, or what seemed to be a new nickname. Mari. Something about hearing him say it in his low voice did something to her. She'd never been given a nickname by a friend before, much less a boy.

"That was terrible, Adrien." She whispered back quietly. "Were did the 'Mari' come from, by the way?" She asked without her voice wavering, trying to stay casual.

She heard him take an intake of breath during a lull in Mme. Medeliev's sentence.

"I- er, sorry, I'll um-"

 _And now the awkward dorkiness returns,_ Marinette thought fondly.

"I don't mind." She confessed softly, smiling at the light blush her friend was wearing. "Though it's a bit unfair, I can't think of a nickname for 'Adrien'."

"I'm sure you'll think of something,  _Mari_." He replied lowly.

She shivered again. Must be the cold. Yeah.

After that they sunk into relative silence, only broken by Adrien's occasional (lame) pun which would make her either groan quietly, rub/roll her eyes or not even justify with a reply. She had to give it to him, though. She truly did not expect him to be able to keep making science related puns through the whole class.

"Should I expect bad puns for now on?" Marinette sighed as they left class for lunch, Adrien following beside her. "Was the polite quietness I saw yesterday and this morning just a trick to lure me in until I was helpless to escape your  _terrible_ word play?"

"I'll have you know these puns are genius!" He reprimanded, hand over heart. "You wound me Marinette Dupain-Cheng!"

"My utmost apologises," she drawled back, rolling her eyes at his dramatic gesture, "I'll be more delicate with my derision in future, snowflake."

"That's a terrible nickname, don't stick with that one please." Adrien sniffed, nose scrunched. "I need something manly, something masculine, something-"

"Honey Bun?" Marinette suggested.

"No-"

"Adrikins?" Her lips quirked, her voice jokingly sultry.

"Definitely  _not."_  Adrien shuddered, glaring at her reproachfully. "You wouldn't be that cruel."

"Prince Charming, then?" She laughed. "Or just Prince? You certainly have no shortage of swooning ladies, and I guess Rose is added to their ranks now."

"Does that make you my fair princess then?" Adrien countered, waggling his eyebrows as they walked down the stairs at the front of the school.

Marinette opted for her usual method of reacting when Adrien did something like that; that is, not reacting.

"Is this the result of poor influences or are you naturally a dork?" She asked instead.

Adrien hummed. "A little bit of both, I'd say. You continue to say 'dork' like it's a bad thing. I'm adorable."

"A _dork_ able more like." She muttered, not noticing his eyes light up.

"You just- you punned." He smiled widely.

"Did not!" Marinette replied a little too quickly.

"Did too." Adrien retorted, smirking, dropping the subject before she could deny further. "So where are we going, anyway?"

"Where I usually go for lunch." Marinette shrugged. " _Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie_ , to be precise."

"Ah, I see." Adrien nodded wisely. "The perks of having fresh pastries nearby."

Marinette hummed as they waited at the traffic lights. "Plus I can usually take a nap or drop off my books I don't need for the afternoon."

"Lucky for some." Adrien laughed.

"I like my sleep, don't judge me. You can leave your books too, they won't mind." Marinette suggested when they were crossing. "You can pick them up after school?"

"I- really? I don't want to be a bother or anything, it's really-"

"You're not a bother, you're my friend." Marinette reprimanded lightly, patting his shoulder.

The more positive reinforcement she instilled, the better. She'd eventually break him out of the habit of considering himself a burden. Maybe she should get treats to help it along. The macarons had gone over nicely, based on what she'd been told at recess today. She should bring a small bag of them in with her in future, or maybe some sour blue raspberry bonbons… Okay, she was buying them after school today, though not necessarily for Adrien.

Marinette had also noticed that he was odd about physical comfort, in the sense that he loved and hated it. When Ivan had patted him on the back or Alix had affectionately punched his shoulder, he got a strange look about his face, as if he wanted nothing more than to slink away, but seemed to tolerate it regardless. He didn't  _seem_ to do the same whenever she did it, though Marinette didn't usually watch him for a reaction. Maybe because it was a public setting at the time or because he hadn't really met them?

They entered the bakery through the main doors, since Marinette planned on introducing Adrien to her parents. Usually she opted for the side door, since at lunch the bakery was often mobbed; it was the busiest time of the day for them.

"Maman!" Marinette called over the hustle and bustle of the queue, taking Adrien lightly but firmly by the hand to guide him through.

He tried his best to ignore how dainty her fingers were in his own, while also ignoring how natural it felt.

 _Just a crush, just a crush,_ he chanted internally, it was quickly becoming a mantra.  _Girls do that with friends all the time. At least, I think so._

"Marinette? Oh, and who's this?" A short woman who he guessed was Marinette's mother Sabine greeted them at the side of the counter while a man who Adrien assumed was her father manned the till. The resemblance was strong, Adrien noted as they approached his friend's mother. Mme. Cheng had the same shade of hair but grey eyes instead of Marinette's blue, and was already shorter (though not by much) than her daughter.

Adrien's eyes widened momentarily as he got a proper look at the man who must be Marinette's father, Tom, after the customer at the front of the line moved. Adrien was ninety percent positive that he was more built than his driver/bodyguard, the Gorilla, and had more than a few inches on him.

"Maman, this is Adrien Agreste, my friend from school." Marinette was saying, bringing Adrien back into focus. "Adrien this is my Maman, Sabine Cheng."

Adrien straightened, holding out his hand to shake Sabine's.

" _It is nice to meet you, Mme. Cheng."_ Adrien greeted clearly.

Sabine's face lit up, her polite smile making way for a wide beam.

" _And it is nice to meet you, Adrien Agreste."_ She replied in turn, before turning to face Marinette.

"So are you here for the usual, Marinette? And what would your friend like?" She asked, directing the last part to Adrien himself.

"Just a croissant, please." Adrien requested, digging into his pocket for money.

"Nonsense." Sabine shook her head at him. "You don't pay, for a friend of Marinette it is on the house."

"Thank you, Mme. Cheng." Adrien smiled.

While she went to get their two lunches, Marinette turned to face him.

"I had completely forgotten you spoke Chinese." She admitted sheepishly.

"Mandarin." He said absentmindedly, before smirking like the cat that got the cream. "And I'll have you know I am a man of many talents and qualities, Mari."

"Humbleness isn't one of them, I'm guessing." She snorted in reply.

Adrien made to rebut, but noticed her mother was returning with two paper bags.

"Yours Marinette," She stated, before giving Adrien the remaining one with a warm smile, "And yours, Adrien."

"Thank you Maman," Marinette said gratefully, "We're going to go up to my room quickly, I'm just going to drop off my books and Adrien's going to do the same."

Adrien's eyes widened in realisation at that, as he quickly turned to face Sabine.

"That is really not necessary," He began hastily, "I- er, I can keep mine on me, or Marinette can- actually no, I'll just keep-"

"Nonsense Adrien." Sabine gave him a small smile while she seemed to appraise him. Adrien fought the urge to fidget under her gaze. "You may go up, and eat your lunch there while it's hot. Just make sure you leave on time for school."

Marinette seemed to realise something had passed between them, but didn't comment. Instead she opted for leading Adrien by the hand to the stairs after another 'thank you'.

"What was that about?" Marinette questioned him once they were out of earshot when passing through the living room. "Was it because you're a boy? Oh she and Papa can be so  _embarrassing_ sometimes!"

"I- ah…" Adrien ran his free hand through his hair nervously. "How much do you know about Chinese culture?"

"Not much," Marinette admitted, "I never really learned, kind of stupid of me."

Adrien squeezed the hand holding his own gently before giving her a smile.

"Not stupid." He stated. "Anyway, bedrooms and kitchens are very private. You're to not enter them as a guest unless specifically invited to do so. One of the big no-nos."

"Oh…" Marinette squeaked, cheeks pink. "So when I- um…"

"Yeah, a bit of a faux pass if I had just went along with it, especially after showing your mother I did know enough to be fluent in the language." Adrien laughed. "I had actually completely forgotten until just there. Though I am dreading meeting your father."

"Oh? How so?" Marinette enquired, leading him up the second flight of stairs. She let go of his hand to open the trapdoor above them.

"Well, he um- looks… scary."

Marinette laughed, stepping into the room. "You two will get along just fine, he's like you: a dork who can't stop punning."

Adrien didn't reply, opting to properly take in Marinette's room as he followed her in.

The interior has cream pink wallpaper, while the floors were made up of series of overlapping dark oak rectangles. In the centre of the room there was a circular pink rug, with a black and pink flower design along the edges and a single chaise longue atop.

The room was entered through a wooden trapdoor, reminding Adrien of a converted loft space. Upon entering her room, Marinette's bed was to the right, reached by a stepladder to the small alcove which housed it. Underneath, an 'L' shaped desk was present, housing her computer monitor, books and other things. On the immediate left was a dresser and wardrobe; while on the right was a chest.

"It's very cosy, and warm." Adrien commented, examining some of the posters. A Jagged Stone one was most prominent given whom it was with its colour scheme, but the desk walls were decorated with fashion magazine pages, design illustrations and what looked suspiciously like the front cover of the last issue of  _Gabriel_.

"Eh." Marinette waved him off. "I'm sure yours is much more impressive."

"Maybe, but not as personable." Adrien replied quietly, ignoring the look she gave him, instead opting to take a few dainty bites of his pastry.

Marinette directed him to the couch, which he briefly hesitated at before sitting beside her.

"What was it you got?" He asked curiously after swallowing.

She opened the bag to reveal a crêpe with a cheese filling.

"You know," Adrien blinked, "I was expecting something like an apple pie. No idea why, though."

Marinette giggled before nibbling at her lunch. "A bit much for lunch, don't you think?"

"Considering how many stairs and ladders there are here, you'd burn it off in two trips!" Adrien laughed lightly.

"It is good for keeping fit, yes." Marinette agreed.

"I'll say." Adrien murmured, taking a bite.

"What?"

"I didn't say anything." He replied quickly.

Marinette hummed, eying him. Eventually she returned to eating.

 _Just a crush, just a crush,_ Adrien repeated mentally.

"Oh, hell." Marinette suddenly frowned, standing up.

"Hmm?"

"Drinks." She explained shortly, setting her crêpe to the side. "What's your poison, Monsieur Agreste? Milk, orange juice…"

"Milk will do me fine." Adrien gave her a half smile. "Do you want me to come with?"

"No no, stay, eat. I'll just be a minute." Marinette reassured, bending over to unlatch the wooden trapdoor.

Adrien coughed after a moment, averting his eyes while blushing furiously.

 _Good boys don't look at pretty girls in jeans when they're doing that,_ he berated himself.  _Very, very rude. Do **not** do that!_

* * *

 

Gabriel Agreste sighed.

_Why are teenage boys so difficult to buy for?_

He had already bought his son some of the best things on the market according to the sites and advisory boards he usually checked around this time of year. But try as he might, he simply couldn't find anything that wasn't either not good enough for Adrien, or something he already had.

"Foosball table? No, that was last year's present." He murmured, scrolling. "Maybe a- no, he already has that…"

He had the top of the line  _Gabriel_ clothing, the best shoes for sale, all current (and previous seeing as his son seemed to enjoy retro) gaming consoles. What's honestly left?

Gabriel groaned.  _Maybe splurging on him wasn't the best of things._

He wasn't ignorant to the fact he wasn't the most personable of people. He also knew this extended to being a parent as well, but that was what Adalacia was- had been, for. She had understood how, to put it bluntly, emotionally retarded he was. He had been like that since as long as he could remember.

He'd come from a lower working class family, attended public school, and it wasn't the greatest of childhoods, given how socially awkward he had been. He wasn't 'sporty' in the typical sense, his activity of choice was fencing over football, and his hobbies were art inclined over… whatever the norm was. He honestly did not know to this day, and had no interest learning.

Given he had been a fifteen year old male at lycée (he had a rather late birthday, December the ninth) and he had an intense interest in fashion it made relating to the other boys rather awkward. His parents had also moved before he started lycée, meaning he had been starting fresh, which simply compounded his problems.

Which was why he had conceded to Adrien for attending collège this year to make friends for going into lycée. He didn't want his son growing up like he had, hence why he tried hard to make sure he had the best there was in both tutors (much better than a teacher with a large classroom of children) and entertainment.

He knew his son took more after his mother than he did after Gabriel himself, which made it an already more difficult task to relate to him. The closest interest to fashion Adrien had was modelling.

 _That's one thing we do share it seems,_ Gabriel mused.  _Late in the year birthdays._

Adrien's birthday was on the thirteenth of September, a week after collège started. Well, one could argue it actually started on Thursday, given Stoneheart's two day rampage. Currently it was Friday midday, and he was no closer to finding a present for Adrien.

Eventually he gave it up as a lost cause, that was, until inspiration struck.

 _Nathalie will know,_ he realised,  _given how much she interacts with Adrien and how she is… not me, she'll have picked up on something he'll be wanting._

Quickly typing out an email to her on his tablet to send, he relaxed, satisfied.

Said relaxation quickly turned to dismay as he remembered another detail of his son's upcoming birthday. Namely, his subtle requests for a party.

What parent in their right mind would want to host a birthday party?! What appealed about having a group of children you do not know at your home? Gabriel was awkward about food deliveries to the kitchens for goodness sake, much less little cretins wandering the halls.

He took vetting of personnel at his home very seriously, but he could hardly do so with a class of children invited! What if one of them had kleptomaniac tendencies, or wasn't careful and ended up doing damage to the furnishings? He knew how rambunctious children could be at times.

No, he did  _not_ want Adrien to have a birthday party. He trusted his son, but he didn't trust his ability to weed out bad influences. Adrien was far too much like his mother, always trying to see the best in people.

The only problem was how best to broach the topic?

He didn't want to outright deny his son. That would just be thoughtlessly cruel, given that he had only been asking since yesterday, oddly enough.

 _Put it on the backburner for now,_ Gabriel decided.  _Come back to that later._

Maybe he should talk to Adrien when he got in later today. That was what parents do after their child had been at school, no? He didn't honestly know, he really couldn't remember either of his doing such a thing.

Social interaction promoted a healthy relationship, that much he knew. He could ask his son about how he was finding school now that he had a few days experience, maybe dig a little into any of these so called 'friends'. To reiterate, he trusted his son, but not his ability to weed out bad influences. Who knows why some of these snots were talking to his son? Goodness knows that the Bourgeois girl was rather obvious in her gold-digging ways, and she was the mayor's daughter!

Knowing Adrien he had probably made friends with one of the 'cool' kids, either the overcompensating jock or the delinquent. Not that he'd really be able to do anything about said horrid friendship, as Adrien would likely take it as a personal attack, and simply hang tighter onto the plebeian out of spite.

This is going to be difficult, Gabriel sighed to himself, pushing away from his desk after checking the time.

_Who knows? Maybe we'll have a somewhat decent conversation._

He snorted at that rather absurd thought. A decent, not awkward conversation between himself and Adrien?  _Quand les poules auront des dents._

When hens have teeth, indeed.

Still, it he might as well try. Even if it did go poorly, he could still potentially learn some.

* * *

 

"How are you finding public schooling, Adrien?" Gabriel asked after swallowing his bite of Steak Diane.

"It's great, father! Thank you for letting me go!" Adrien replied, surprising Gabriel.

 _Goodness, he's positively gushing,_ he thought to himself, quite surprised. Of course, his only visible show of this was a raised eyebrow.

"The tutors were good," Adrien began hastily after he had given a nod to elaborate, "but in the classroom environment it's just… more exciting? More active? It's nice having others there."

"Is it not distracting though?" Gabriel asked, drawing from his own experiences.

"Not really." Adrien disagreed. "Some of the teachers have a no-nonsense attitude towards working-"

Gabriel nodded to himself approvingly, pausing to take a bite of food.

"But some like Mme. Bustier (she's my favourite!), they let us talk quietly as long as we're working."

"Do you often talk in those classes?" Gabriel prodded carefully, unassumingly.

"Well, I still work, but- yeah." Adrien admitted sheepishly. "Me and Mari- I- erm, Marinette, we sit beside each other."

Alarms and red flags were going off in Gabriel's head.  _Not good. This is NOT good._

"Marinette?" He rolled the name around, analysing it. "Or as you seem to prefer, 'Mari'?"

Adrien blushed lightly, mouth full. Gabriel's worry increased.

"She's my best friend." He confessed after swallowing. "I um, accidently called her Mari in science class yesterday, and it stuck. She says it's unfair since 'Adrien' is hard to come up with something for." He laughed.

Gabriel was still alert and interested, but he quickly realised that some of his first assumptions weren't lining up.

"How about you start off with Wednesday?" He suggested. "Is that when you met her?"

The children had been sent home not too long after Stoneheart had been defeated, Gabriel remembered. So it must have been Wednesday morning that his son had met this girl.

Adrien nodded vigorously. "Chloé was showing me around before we went to our first class with Mme. Bustier. When we got there she um, got into a… verbal disagreement with another girl."

 _Typical._ Gabriel snorted.  _Sounds like the brat._

"So yeah, they were going on a bit long, and I was getting nervous." Adrien explained himself. "I was just standing there, and nearly everyone was staring so it was getting awkward. Mari- Marinette was sitting in the front row, so I asked her if I could sit there if she didn't mind."

 _So it was Adrien who initiated it,_ Gabriel thought to himself, relaxing ever so slightly. That was positive news.

"She was nice." Adrien told him fondly. "She didn't even seem to know who I was, either! It was so weird at first when Chloé was showing me about, all these girls and a few guys were asking for autographs and stuff, but I guess it hadn't really clicked for her at the time."

 _A good sign,_ Gabriel nodded, but didn't let go of his doubt.  _It hadn't clicked for her **yet,** being the key word. Clearly it did later._

"Anyway Chloé was a little busy, and I was worried she wouldn't be able to help with, you know, how public school works."

 _Ah,_ Gabriel winced internally.  _I really should've thought about addressing that, or asking Nathalie to._ In fairness, he hadn't actually  _expected_ Adrien to be going to public school. Still, he should have done it retrospectively once he began attending.

"Marinette said she wouldn't mind helping me, I didn't know they took a register at the start of class until she told me." Adrien admitted, blushing slightly.

Gabriel was sure there was a story there, but didn't push.

"She was- is, nice." Adrien repeated with a nod.

"I see." Gabriel said neutrally. "But given that whole, ah what is it they are calling it now? 'Akuma' yes, given the akuma incident I assume you didn't really get to talk until yesterday and today?"

"Yeah, we got talking." Adrien affirmed. "Her full name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, her father-"

"-is French and her mother is Chinese." Gabriel interrupted lightly with a small smile. "You forget I wouldn't ask you to be fluent in the language if I myself was not."

"I forgot, yes." Adrien admitted with a nervous grin, pausing to take a bite. "They own a bakery close to the school, the  _Tom and Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie_. Marinette took me there for lunch yesterday."

Gabriel wondered if he was reading too much into the gesture. Was it out of simple kindness of a friend, or was it (more likely in his rather cynical mind) an attempt to boost the popularity of her parent's business via endorsement value of a celebrity visiting?

"So, young Mme. Dupain-Cheng. What is she like?" Gabriel asked while taking a drink from his wine glass.

"She's um, artistic. You should see some of her sketches and ideas, father; she wants to be a fashion designer one day." Adrien didn't notice to look of alarm and worry that crossed his father's features, and continued on. "She's short, about a full head shorter than me. Mari has dark hair which she wears in pigtails, they're pretty cute, and she has pretty blue eyes. She has this bracelet she always wears, she calls it her 'Lucky Charm'." Adrien chuckled, still not focusing on his father, and was gazing out the window.

_Oh no, please no…_

"It's pretty funny seeing as she's pretty unlucky at times. She doesn't like math or the sciences all too much, she's good with the knowledge parts but when it comes to applying formulas she gets them muddled. Oh yeah, she's pretty clumsy too," Adrien chuckled, "today she had somehow tripped going  _up_ the stairs but I caught her in time, I still don't know how it happened. Oh, and she's a fan of your work, father. You're her idol!" It was at this point Adrien realised that he had probably been rambling, and promptly turned rather red.

 _Cardinal, if I have my palette right,_ he thought absentmindedly, still worried over the information he'd been told.

"She… sounds like a nice young lady." Gabriel eventually managed to get out.

 _This is **not** good. Why oh why couldn't it have been the jock or the delinquent, _he groaned internally.  _Either I could cope with. Why did it have to be the fashion designer girl who Adrien is also quite clearly infatuated with?_

There were so many reasons why this was a bad thing.

A fashion designer girl was his son's closest friend, which meant she could be currently or would in future use his son to further her own ambitions that would likely end in failure anyway.

She could hurt Adrien as a friend or break his son's heart.

His son could attempt to foolishly impress her with  _Gabriel_ secrets and whatnot as well. Sneak peaks at ideas, future designs, planning...

So much was wrong with this, but Adrien would not hear a word against her, this Gabriel was sure of.

"And her parents? What of them?" Gabriel asked, changing the subject.

"Oh! Uh…" Adrien paused to bashfully rub the back of his head. "They're kind. Mme. Cheng is a nice woman; she was the one who greeted us yesterday. It was in the middle of the lunch rush so I didn't actually meet her father, Tom, until we were leaving for school."

 _Which means he most likely stayed for his break in her room,_ Gabriel realised. That  _will_ be discussed later. Or rather, Nathalie will be delegated to handling said discussion.

"Did you greet her mother properly?" Gabriel enquired, setting his empty place to the side.

"I did." Adrien affirmed proudly. "Marinette doesn't actually know Mandarin though."

"Really?" Gabriel murmured.  _And I suppose she asked-_

"She was kind of embarrassed about it, I think. I had asked her after why she didn't ask her mum to teach her, but she explained that on top of running the business plus Mme. Cheng herself said she wasn't really teaching material (but would if Marinette really wanted to learn) so she hadn't learned it."

"She didn't request for you to tutor her?" Gabriel questioned curiously.

"No, she hadn't." Adrien answered, clearly surprised. But this made way for panic. "Should I have offered? I mean- it wouldn't be too presumptuous-"

"Adrien, calm." Gabriel commanded firmly.

Sure enough, his son settled down. Gabriel sighed, both exasperated and melancholy.

Adalicia was often similar. Adrien was rather like his mother in that regard, he could be quite emotional. It often manifested for Adalicia as flights of passion in the middle of designing a particular piece, or when she feared that she'd made a mistake; yes, Adrien had inherited his mother's panicked flailing and self-deprecating rambling over Gabriel's own calm rationalisation.

Gabriel looked away, glancing at one of the paintings in the room.

"It wouldn't be too presumptuous to offer." Gabriel started after a moment of silence. "However, you do have your own studies to think of as well. Keep that in mind."

"I-… yes, father. Of course." Adrien nodded dejectedly, while Gabriel quietly sighed.

_And it had been going so well…_

"You never told me how your meeting with her father went." Gabriel offered, returning to making eye contact.

Adrien brightened. "He looks really scary but he was actually friendly, and he's also taller and bigger than the Gorilla!"

" _The_ Gorilla?" Gabriel questioned, brow furrowed.

Adrien quickly looked a strange combination of ashamed and nonchalant. "You know… Mathis…"

Gabriel gave a quiet snort of laughter. "You call Mathis 'the Gorilla'?"

"I- yes?" Adrien answered cautiously.

Gabriel hummed his amusement. "Yes, I can see how that nickname could come around. The side burns, yes?"

Adrien laughed, and Gabriel felt a sense of joy and contentment he thought had died with his wife rouse itself.

"Well, Tom is really nice, and he loves puns! Marinette doesn't like them much though, she says his ones are just bad and have ruined them for her." Adrien stated once he had recovered from laughing.

"I thought that would be obvious the man loves word play, and he's clearly not all that bad at it." Gabriel said, confused.

"What? How?" Adrien enquired.

"You… you really don't know?"

Adrien shook his head. Gabriel sighed.

"Very well. Your name, Adrien. Do you know what it means?"

"Um, Roman origin if I remember right? Commonly called 'dark one' I think?" Adrien clarified, to which Gabriel nodded.

"Now, Monsieur Dupain is clearly from old linage, given his surname. A baker's one, rather like how in English you have 'Potter'. 'du pain', as in, 'of the bread' or 'some bread'. Are you following me?"

Adrien nodded.

"Good. Now, as you should know from your Chinese lessons, 'Cheng' translates as 'to make'. What does 'Marinette' mean?"

"I'm not sure. 'rises' something?" Adrien said unsurely.

"Close." Gabriel nodded approvingly. "It translates as 'the one who rises'."

Adrien snorted, trying to hide his laughter. Gabriel raised a single brow.

"Marinette is renowned for being late or barely on time for things, she… enjoys sleeping." Adrien explained.

"Then you may just find this more amusing. Put the meaning of 'Marinette' and 'Dupain' and finally 'Cheng' together."

"The one who rises to ma-…" Adrien stopped.

Gabriel absentmindedly remembered his son having similar reaction when he was younger on Christmas Day. He hadn't expected to see that very look of wonder and amazement again, particularly given the subject matter.

"Her name is literally a pun." Adrien whispered. "A baking pun."

"Clearly, young Marinette and yourself aren't giving Monsieur Dupain enough credit." Gabriel murmured, sipping his wine. "He seems to have played a long game with that particular one. And I'm guessing neither his daughter nor his wife have actually realised yet."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any issues be it spelling, grammatical or otherwise don't hesitate to let me know!


	4. The Bubbler

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien is told that the birthday party isn't happening, Marinette decides to try and talk to his father about it and an akuma makes itself known.
> 
> Meanwhile, other forces are very much interested in the miraculous events happening in Paris.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a while, but I wanted to wait on confirmation about the extra Miraculouses that'll be introduced. Indeed, a large portion of this chapter had to be rewritten as a result; anyways, on with the story!

* * *

 

"Happy birthday, Adrien!"

Of all the starts to his morning, the last one Adrien suspected was having smelly cheese shoved into his peripheral, much less said piece being wrapped in a little red ribbon too.

"Ugh, Plagg! Get that filthy piece of camembert out of my face!" He managed out, pinching his nostrils to avoid the acrid smell.

The devious little thing shrugged, before swallowing it whole.

 _Oh, very clever Plagg,_ Adrien grumbled. _The greedy thing gets cheese and to pretend it cared._

Still, the thought was what counts, at least the Kwami had actually remembered today was his birthday.

_Hopefully father did as well._

That was perhaps too pessimistic, but it did bring to mind his one request for his birthday, that being a party.

Seeing as he had gotten along relatively fine with the majority of the class, although Chloé was still being strangely lukewarm but still, most of them he was on okay terms with. In particular he had gotten along with Ivan; at first he had felt rather guilty for leaving so suddenly after the fight and felt the need to check if the big guy was doing fine, but it had turned into a positive friendship.

 Ivan had a rather clever dry wit about him, while at times Ivan appeared grouchy or bored, Adrien didn't honestly mind: it was almost like if he was a human Plagg with redeeming qualities and interests in anything more than just cheese. Plus, the guy was surprisingly shy, more of a gentle giant if anything.

 Marinette had explained to him when he had enquired about his (surprisingly once you actually get to know him) short fuse that led to him being akumatized, that Lê Chiến Kim had a history of antagonising Ivan. Usually the larger boy could shrug it off, but apparently the note that had been passed to him had been openly mocking his crush on Mylène.

Mylène herself Adrien was on decent terms with. They hadn't really talked too much, but on the few occasions they had, they had been... cordial? That sounded rather cold, but it was really the best he could come up with to describe the talks between himself and the meek girl.

Kim he had found to be... very competitive. Adrien didn't mind competition all that much, but as soon as Kim had found out he played basketball the taller boy had then challenged him to a one on one. This was only just yesterday, and he had been in the middle of a conversation with Marinette. It didn't help that Kim had been under the impression that seeing as it was lunch, they should head to the court immediately, ignoring Adrien when he had suggested doing so another day; nor did it help when Kim started trash talking when they weren't even _in_ a game, only succeeding in making Adrien irritated, not defensive. Needless to say they weren't exactly friends, but Adrien hoped he'd take the invitation to the party as a peace offering.

He honestly did not understand how Alix could tolerate that on a daily basis.

Rose and Juleka he got along with by proxy of them being the closest in the class to Marinette, while he was merely friendly with others such as Max, Alix and Nino.

After Ivan, Nino was his closest male friend. The guy was pretty chill, and they had talked music for most of the break yesterday. His only main gripe he supposed that made him usually avoid talking to Nino was his close friendship with Alya Césaire, who he often wasn't without.

He didn't _not_ like her, per-say, it was just that... she rubbed him the wrong way. Beyond her arriving late to class (which he hadn't really noticed) his first proper impression of her was her leading Marinette, Rose and Juleka into danger while he as Chat Noir had been busy keeping his distance from the stone beings determined to squash him.

Maybe he was being unfair, but she just annoyed him with her inquisitiveness that bordered dangerous. She'd have made a great Chat Noir he supposed, bringing to life the old saying about felines and curiosity.

Plus, there was that niggling resentment about her blog, _The Fox's Den._ Yes that was definitely unfair and petulant as she didn't know he was Chat Noir, but it still hurt. It hadn't gone over too well once it had been posted on that blog what his power was; people had been curious after seeing Vixen's in use against Stoneheart's minions, he hadn't had to use Cataclysm that day after all.

Ayla had revealed Cataclysm had been used the day before on the goal posts in the stadium, their absence being confirmed by followers not too long after the post.

It hadn't gone over well with the general public that Chat Noir could literally wipe out whatever he wanted with a touch of his claw. There was much panic about what he could end up doing if he had used his power and instead of hitting one of the stone beings, had he touched the Eiffel Tower.

Of course, he could hardly explain that he could control the level of destruction done, and that it wasn't something just _let off_ without warning.

Plagg had explained that such a reaction would usually have been counteracted by Ladybug's presence, one of her powers being able to reverse such damage that occurred, including any done by Chat Noir.

Vixen had already proved how her illusions could be beneficial to the public safety in her clever use of them to free  Mylène, and even her power, _'_ _Feux Follets'_ if he recalled it right, was a directly damaging attack over potentially widespread mayhem of Cataclysm.

It had hurt Adrien to read the comment threads on the blog. The praise heaped on Vixen, the admiration and gratitude while they ignored him.

Yet for it all, he couldn't deny they were mostly right. Vixen _had_ been the one to stay for interviews and promise to work with the law enforcement, while he was seen as the unapproachable one of the two.

Quite a few had adopted a 'wait and see' policy in regards to them though, arguing that it had been a one off occasion and they'd get a better idea of the new status quo come the following attacks.

There had been some heart-warming praise from some for his work, and Mylène herself had praised him on _The Fox's Den_ as well! That had brightened his weekend.

Plus, Marinette liked Chat Noir, and that was enough to make him content.

Speaking of Marinette and given what day it was, he was excited to see what she had made him. Ivan had explained that Marinette tended to make gifts for classmates for their birthdays, he himself had a pair of winter gloves with his favourite metal band's logo embroidered and in their colours.

Marinette had teased him by saying that yes, it would indeed be winter related when he had eagerly inquired on Friday. That was all the information she would be giving him though, and had promised that it wouldn't have a tag, either.

That had confused him at first, until she coyly told him she signs all of her pieces, and that he'd just have to find it.

No matter how much he pouted and gave her kitten eyes, she was unmoved.

"Mylène had the same thing, as did Ivan and everyone before them." She had explained instead. "Think of it as a game, Adrien!"

Well if that was how she wanted to play, then very well. Still doesn't stop her being a sassy little thing though, and yes, he would making height related puns as soon as he had a chance as some semblance of feeble revenge. What can he say? Mari just drew the _short_ straw when it came to genetics. Heh.

He hadn't had anything hand-made for his birthday before, much less by a friend.

He hadn't had a party either before.

Well, there was still the likelihood that that wouldn't change. His father still hadn't gotten back to him yet, which Adrien was guessing was his method of saying 'no' without actually speaking. He would simply avoid the issue or any chance to discuss it until it passed.

He was still holding out hope though, as in vain as it likely was. It did seem they were making progress last Friday.

He'd ask Nathalie at breakfast when she comes with the schedule today. If his memory was right, he had a photoshoot which he'd need to leave at break for, meaning he'd likely be missing his midday classes but if it wasn’t too long he’d be back for lunch.

It was going to happen sometimes, but his father through Nathalie would get him cleared for them. On the bright side it was only double P.E, he didn't mind missing that.

* * *

 

"So the party isn't happening then?"

"Nope." Adrien sighed, popping the 'p'.

It was the beginning of break, and he was waiting with Marinette on the limo coming to take him to the shoot.

"Did he at least say why?" Marinette asked, frowning.

"Nah. Didn't really expect him to even consider it, let alone say yes." Adrien chuckled hollowly. "Nathalie just said that he 'didn't think it'd be a good idea'."

The pair was quiet for a moment, until Marinette tentatively spoke up.

"If you like, I... I could try speaking to him?"

"You'd be wasting your time." Adrien shook his head. "He's not going to change his mind."

"Well I'm going over with your present anyway!" Marinette argued, sounding surer of herself. "So I might as well give it a shot."

Marinette had told him she had left the present at home, and had been planning to bring it over during the party to avoid him potentially cheating by spotting the paper it was wrapped in.

Adrien was honestly surprised she continued to insist to talk to his father and was honestly a little touched. It was one thing to do it for a friend, but this was also Marinette's idol as well, and their first conversation would likely be an argument, and she was willing to try anyway.

"Well, I suppose there's no harm in trying." Adrien admitted. "Who knows? Maybe you'll be able to get-"

"Out of my way, _Clumsi_ nette." Came before Marinette was rudely shoved to the side. "Happy birthday, Adrien!"

Adrien awkwardly ducked out of the way of Chloé's kiss, opting instead to check if Marinette was okay.

"Yeah, thanks Chloé." He said without looking at her, making no effort to hide his frown.

His 'friend' hadn't talked to him since Thursday during a break in class when she had said that she'd stop talking to him until he saw sense, or something. He hadn't really paid attention. So it was rather surprising she had remembered his birthday.

"Did you get the gift I sent you?"

A gift as well? Even odder. "Uh, no."

"What? Oh, those delivery guys. I bet it was too heavy so they had to go back and get another guy to help. Those slackers."

She then wrapping her arms around his shoulders, and Adrien would've liked nothing else than to hiss at her, as strange as the urge was.

"I'll make sure they get it to you tonight." She promised, before quickly landing a kiss on his cheek before he could react.

Ah, Chloé Code for 'I forgot so Sabrina will get something later'.  Had she gotten him a new bed or something that he was expected to believe two delivery guys weren't enough for whatever birthday gift it was? Adrien had actually had his hopes up that she had indeed remembered.

As Chloé walked away, Adrien turned to face Marinette, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

"Weren't you going to do anything? I was being attacked!" He complained.

The strange little frown she had been wearing made way for a quirked smile.

"Ah, but you dodged the first one so magnificently." Mari laughed at him. "I didn't expect you to lean in for the next one."

"I didn't lean in!" Adrien whined. "That is slander!"

"Mhmm, sue me." Came the sassy reply. Good to see that Chloé hadn't gotten to her, she seemed to have a go at Marinette every ten minutes.

"You know what you could do to make up for it?" Adrien asked slyly.

Marinette raised a single unimpressed eyebrow while her lips pursed, like every time she guessed he was going to say something dorky.

"You could balance it out and kiss the other cheek?" He suggested nonchalantly, turning slightly as if to look for the limo he knew hadn't arrived yet.

"Oh really? My my, I wonder what the magazines will say when they hear about you stringing along two girls." Mari drawled, giggling.

Adrien spluttered, realising the way what he said could be took.

"I didn't- wait no, that's not-!"

"Relax Pretty Boy, I'm just messing." Mari patted his shoulder.

"Better be, Short Stuff." He grinned as her nose wrinkled. "Because I'll have you know I'm a one girl man."

"Oh boy, what did I do to deserve that?"

"Who said I was talking about you?" Adrien asked, smirking. "Which reminds me, do I have your blessing to pursue my sweet Rose?"

Mari paused to properly look at him. Adrien fidgeted. "I think it's Juleka you should be asking about that." She said finally.

Adrien hummed. "Ah, but I'd like it to be by your grace too, Mari. I'd hate to _overlook_ you."

Marinette facepalmed, groaning.

"Fine, fine, I was only joking anyway. How about I make it up to you with a date?" Adrien grinned.

"How about no?" Marinette replied.

"If that's not to your tastes we can organise a party for you." Adrien suggested. "It'll just be a _little_ get together."

"Why do you do this to me? How can you do this to me?"

"Don't you mean, how could I _stoop so low?"_

"I swear to god I am going to-"

"Oh look, my ride is here." Adrien said suddenly, spotting the limo that had been waiting for the last minute. "Gotta go!"

"I am really considering not giving you that present Adrien, I'm not happy." She called after him.

"Well which one are you then?!" He shouted through his laughter back, picking up the pace after hearing a shriek of rage that promised pain. He could even hear Plagg snickering at that one from his jacket pocket.

 _No regrets, Agreste, no regrets,_ Adrien said to himself.

Well, for now, anyway. He'd regret it later.

* * *

 

She was going to smash him later for his comments about her height, Marinette promised herself as she made her way towards the Agreste mansion during her early lunch break.

_Oh god that sounds like an innuendo, why._

Clearly she had been hanging around him too long. She was going to _hurt_ him later, Marinette promised herself.

_Then again I can't really bruise Pretty Boy otherwise he can't do his job._

Curses. Well she'll just have to leave marks where they can't be seen.

_Oh god that sounds like another innuendo, and one he'd say._

Eventually Marinette gave up the idea of making her best friend pay for his mockery of her height (she wasn't short, okay? He was just freakishly tall) as a bad job.

 She’d just stopped by the bakery during her fourth period (seeing as she had a double free she’d managed to sneak out of the library she was supposed to be studying in) and was currently on her way to her friend’s home.

Currently, she was trying to focus on what she'd be saying to his father.

Which wasn't as easy as it sounded, given that she had no clue _why_ he had said no for starters and also because it's Gabriel _fucking_ Agreste, her idol.

Oh god, she was going to be talking to Gabriel Agreste. _The_ Gabriel Agreste, and it's not going to be a friendly conversation.

Soon enough she was at the massive gates, and she finally understood what Adrien meant when he had previously described the place as ‘extravagant’. The archway alone was at least six times taller than her, the gate sitting at a modest four. All of this was enclosed by a massive wall around the mansion she had to crane her neck to see.

The strangest thing was when she rang the bell and instead of a voice responding from the intercom, a camera popped forth from a concealed compartment in the wall.

“Yes?” Came a bored, feminine drawl.

“Hi, is this um, Nathalie?” Marinette asked.

There was a beat of silence, before the woman replied.

“It is she. What business do you have here?”

“I’m Marinette, I came to deliver Adrien’s birthday present. I’m a friend from school.” Marinette explained, showing the light blue wrapped package.

“Put it in the box.”

The mailbox which had been previously sealed shut popped open. Marinette hesitated before dropping it in.

“Is there something else?” Nathalie questioned as the mailbox closed.

“I was uh, I was hoping to speak to M. Agreste. It’s about Adrien.”

“…I see.” Nathalie replied slowly. “I shall notify him of your presence. Enter.”

The camera retreated and the wall compartment closed after it, and the gates swung open.

* * *

 

“Who was that?” Her employer’s voice greeted Nathalie as she retook her seat after retrieving Adrien’s friend’s gift.

“A friend of Adrien’s. She was delivering a gift for his birthday, and she asked to speak to you." She replied to the screen.

“I see. Her name?” Nathalie knew her boss well, regardless of how empty he delivered the question. He seemed to already know the answer.

“Marinette, Dupain-Cheng I believe if I remember Adrien’s classmates correctly.”

Naturally she kept up to date on who exactly Adrien was in contact with, and as soon as he started attending school she had procured the register. The name Agreste went far.

Her boss nodded absentmindedly on the intercom screen.

“Very well, I shall meet her in the entrance hall.” Gabriel paused, before continuing to speak. “Did you remember to buy him a present from me?”

Nathalie was baffled. “But, you didn’t ask me to.”

Her boss looked furious, and Nathalie realised that he wouldn’t be so insistent if he hadn’t actually. Oh god, had she missed whatever message he had left her?!

“Of course I did!” Gabriel snapped.

“Yes, M. Agreste. I-I’ll take care of it.”

“Good.” Gabriel replied waspishly before disconnecting the call.

Nathalie covered her mouth, containing the scream of panic that threatened to come forth.

She needed to check how she had missed the message, but more importantly, what was she going to about the present?!

Her eyes darted to the neatly wrapped one on her desk, and noticed there was no note.

She couldn’t, could she?

 _It’s either this or my job,_ Nathalie groaned.

She’d really messed this up.

* * *

 

Gabriel descended the first flight of stairs from the east wing as Mme. Dupain-Cheng entered through the doors.

 _So this is the girl Adrien is so infatuated with,_ Gabriel studied her closely.

She was an unassuming thing, hardly what he had been expecting, but she was as Adrien had described.

“My assistant tells me you wish to speak with me, Mme. Dupain-Cheng.” Gabriel announced as he waited at the top of the stairs, making no move to greet her.

“I- you know my name, sir?”

 _Polite, I’ll give her that,_ Gabriel nodded to himself. He did appreciate good manners and proper respect being given.

“Of course,” he answered aloud coolly, “I do make a note of the influences on my son.”

“Well, I wished to speak with you about Adrien.”

“Presumably the birthday party? Or lack of?” Gabriel guessed nonchalantly, nodding in satisfaction when the girl’s eyes widened.  

“Yes, sir. Adrien is… disappointed that it isn’t happening, but he did say you hadn’t really given a reason for it.” She stated, and Gabriel frowned.

“Is there a question there?” He asked.

“I- yes. I’m asking _for_ Adrien as a _friend,_ why- why is he not allowed to have a party with his friends?”

 _Brave little thing,_ Gabriel noticed, _but frankly, it does not matter._

“I see not how a _friend_ would have any say in such a thing, but I shall humour you, girl.” Gabriel replied. “The simple fact of the matter is that as much as I do love my son, I understand that he can be far too… trusting. Needless to say, I do not know what sort of people the invitees are. Indeed, here _you_ are, entering _my_ home, and demanding answers from me. Am I expected to open my doors to children similar to yourself?”

The girl gulped, taking a step back nervously.

 _Yes, didn’t expect that did you?_ Gabriel thought viciously. _My son may fall to your whims, girl, but do not expect me to not see through you._

“You’re worried about us breaking things in your home, at Adrien’s party?”

“Breaking, stealing, vandalising,” Gabriel waved a hand, “all likely to occur. I did in fact go to public school myself, I know the sorts who attend. As myself and Nathalie will be otherwise occupied today…”

“Adrien did say you take security seriously.” Mme. Dupain-Cheng mentioned quietly.

“When it comes to my son and my home, I do.” He answered.

“Then… What about having the party _outside_ your home?” The girl suggested.

Gabriel frowned immediately. _I suppose at her little bakery, hmm? I think not, I see-_

“W-when I say outside, I mean still on the premises!” she rushed out to clarify, “Why not have it set up just past the gate? That way you don’t need to worry about people going inside, and it’ll be easier to keep an eye on it!”

Gabriel opened his mouth to reply, but closed it.

 _The idea **does** have merit, _he acknowledged begrudgingly. _Mathis could easily chaperone to ensure nobody does wander from the designated area as he is free… hmm…_

At that moment the doors swung open again. Only this time, it was another resident of the mansion.

"Mari!" Adrien greeted the girl happily.

"Oh, Adrien! I- I thought your shoot would take up lunch as well?" The girl replied, turning to face his son.

Gabriel frowned at the byplay.

"It was going to." Adrien agreed. "But we managed to get through it all, and the photographer was satisfied with the work done. I didn't expect you to be here, though!"

"I, well..."

It was at that moment Adrien realised that Gabriel was also present.

"Father, it is good to see you." Adrien greeted, smile disappearing with the rest of his cheeriness.

The sudden change in his son tugged at something in Gabriel, but he managed to ignore it.

"And you, Adrien." He replied stiffly. "Mme. Dupain-Cheng was just leaving."

"She was?" Adrien asked, momentarily surprised.

"...Yeah, I was." The girl managed a tight smile. "I'll- I'll see you back at school, okay? I'm just going to get lunch before I go back to the school."

"Oh."

Gabriel swallowed.

"Now that you're back though you have no excuse to _not_ eat!" The girl mock-frowned, poking his son in the chest. Gabriel noticed that his son was far from upset, but rather looked bashful. "So make you get something, okay?"

"I will Mari don't worry." Adrien smiled. "See you at school?"

Mme. Dupain-Cheng nodded, the returned smile not faked like the first. She turned to face Gabriel.

"It was good to meet you, sir." She said, bowing to him.

Gabriel dipped his head in response, not verbally replying.

The girl started to walk away before Adrien suddenly reached out to her shoulder.

"Wait, Mari. Did you... did he-..."

Mme. Dupain-Cheng hesitated, glancing at Gabriel.

He didn't see his son's face, but he could guess from what it was like when his shoulders dropped as if all the previous excitable energy had left him.

Gabriel glanced away, thinking.

Was he really going to be this petty? He wasn't a man for delusions, much less deluding himself. He could acknowledge he was jealous of the girl for how his son seemed to be so... so happy, so carefree around her. Like he was before Adalicia...

"Mme. Dupain-Cheng and I were having a discussion, Adrien." Gabriel called across the hall, stepping down the stairs.

"I- I see." Adrien answered, turning to face him as Gabriel walked closer.

There it was again. That same, blank face that showed so little but told Gabriel so much. He didn't like it when his son looked at him like that, like... nothing.

"I should go." The girl said suddenly. "See you at school, Adrien."

She left quickly, but had the curtsey to close the doors quietly. Gabriel nodded inwardly.

"She was just-... She was just being a good friend, father." Adrien tried to explain in a rush.

Gabriel said nothing.

 _I am being petty,_ he realised. _What is more important? Adrien's happiness or getting one over on that girl trying to sink her claws in him?_

Once he put it like that, it was an easy choice.

"Yes, the girl, Mme. Dupain-Cheng, gave some interesting points." He replied neutrally.

Adrien slumped further.

"I should've told her not to bother, I'm sorry fath-"

"Which is why I have decided to agree with her." Gabriel interrupted. "I will see to the preparations for your impromptu party, and so long as you _promise me_ that you will do any homework, both outstanding and given today, tonight, you shall have the party after school."

"I-... Are you..."

"Do I have your word, Adrien?" Gabriel questioned solemnly.

"YES! Thank you father!"

Suddenly Adrien was hugging him, and Gabriel was baffled at the speed he moved and the ferocity of the embrace. Eventually, he let the tense reaction fade and relaxed, patting his son's back.

_Yes, this was the right decision._

* * *

Marinette was playing with her pencil case absentmindedly, trying not to think about Adrien.

 _He's going to be so disappointed,_ she thought morosely. _The first time I can act like a proper friend for him and I fall at the first hurdle. I'm a horrible friend._

For once she was slightly early to science class as opposed to her usual lateness; given that it was her least favourite subject it was understandable that she wouldn't want to be there longer than need be.

But frankly, she wanted to take as much time as should for avoiding Adrien. She dreaded seeing him so disappointed, and the work part of it was he wouldn't even think to blame her. Curse him and his kindness.

Without warning, the door was slammed open, and in came Adrien.

"I have no idea what you said or did to him-"

Oh god it was worse than she thought-

"-But THANK YOU!"

Marinette squeaked as she was suddenly face to face with Adrien's shirt as he hugged the life out of her.

"Thank you thank you thank you!" He kept repeating over and over as he rested his chin on top of her head.

"O _b_ ay- I mean, um, right! Glad you're so happy!" She managed to get out, though it came across as rather muffled. She was rather overwhelmed by his reaction, and the hint of _Parfum Mystique_ from _Gabriel._ The cinnamon, fresh citruses, leather and sandalwood was very _Adrien._ She didn't even realise she was taking slow breathes through her nose until now.

She eventually managed to push him away slightly (so she could breathe of course), then it clicked.

"What, he- your dad- he agreed?!" She spluttered.

Adrien's smile was so wide Marinette was pretty sure it must hurt, it stretched all the way across his rosy cheeks; he then opened his mouth to reply.

"Listen I'm really glad that the marriage has been formalised and all," a voice suddenly interrupted whatever Adrien was going to say, "but can you not do this in class?"

Marinette glowered at Nino who was on the bench to their left, who maintained eye contact unabashedly back while the other classmates who were already there snickered.

"It was nothing like that Nino, father just agreed that I could have the party," Adrien replied back with a frown, before smiling slyly, "and the sound system he said he'll be setting up could _really_ use a DJ..."

"Dude!" Nino exclaimed. "Count me in!"

Adrien laughed and accepted the offered fist bump.

"So who's invited?" Nino asked.

"Well," Adrien started, glancing around the class, "pretty much everyone in here is. Can you all make it an hour after school ends?"

A chorus of agreements and confirmations greeted Adrien, and it warmed Marinette's heart to see just how he glowed at such a small gesture. As more of their classmates filed in and he told them about the party, they took their seats.

"I'll think of something to pay you back," Adrien said softly to her, breath brushing her neck as the fragrance she was slowly beginning to associate with him tickled her nose, "but... _Thank you,_ Mari."

"No problem." She replied quietly.

* * *

 

Nino was truly excited for Adrien's birthday party.

He wasn't exactly a social butterfly, having preferred to sit at the back of class where he could quietly listen to his music to drown out the chatter of his classmates. Honestly, the only ones he had gotten along with before this new year at school were Marinette, Nathaniel and Max, the latter he had drifted from over the summer.

Yeah, he suspected Chloé’s dad had something to do with the fact their class hadn’t really changed member-wise over the last few years, though a few faces had disappeared, either moved or lucky enough to need to move class. Chloé probably asked Daddy Mayor to keep Sabrina in it and the lazy git just kept everyone he could.

It did have the side effect of everyone forming their own little groups of friends seeing as they weren’t likely to change, Max had evidently become pals with Kim over the holiday since they were buds now, forming a little trio between them and Alix.

Juleka and Rose had always been a little pair up at the back of the class with him, and Ivan never really bothered with anyone outside Mylène, Marinette and Juleka. Chloé of course was never without Sabrina her lackey, Mylène was often with Rose and Juleka, and nowadays of course Ivan.

Nathaniel (the lucky guy that he is) was still allowed to remain at the back of the class. Nath was pretty chill, he’d often be doing his thing while Nino did his and they had a decent dynamic going on.

Marinette was pretty much the glue of their class, she had at least one connection to each of their groups, usually more. Honestly the girl was just that likable she fluttered to and fro without any of the usual problems that would occur. Sadly, that seemed to have changed this year due to the two new kids.

Yeah, now that he couldn’t listen to some tunes while he worked that often (earpods _sucked_ compared to his headphones) he was actually forced to be slightly invested in the goings on of the class.

Alya was pretty cool for a girl, she reminded him of how he and Marinette used to be, and she was pretty much his new best bud. She was a sassy spitfire, and they’d just clicked. She seemed busy twenty-four-seven though, between that blog she runs, school and looking after the twin terrors, also known as her siblings. Still, they got to hang out sometimes after school, she’d went with him to the music store at the weekend.

The Adrien guy was a bit of a surprise if Nino was honest. A famous rich boy who was friends with Chloé, Nino had thought he already had him sussed out, but clearly he’d been wrong. I mean, how else would you explain how he was best buds with Marinette of all people? Chloé still wasn’t happy, but the guy clearly didn’t care one bit.

Maybe he’d like the guy more if Adrien quite clearly wasn’t already utterly infatuated with Marinette. Yeah, Nino had been harbouring a crush on her himself for a while now, and he couldn’t help but feel slightly jealous that Adrien was the one sitting there beside Marinette.

Though his hopes did rear their head when he heard that dork’s first attempts at flirtation, and it made Nino so very confused about what he was supposed to be feeling.

He was jealous yes that the guy got the sit there and flirt away, but he was hopeful also because Marinette hadn’t been swooning or anything like that (not like Rose was anyway, god that girl was pretty obvious with how bad she had it for Agreste) but… it was also _hilarious._

The guy literally flirted with puns and one liners. Puns, and one liners!

He and Alya were often the ones to hear them, and honestly if Nino himself wasn’t crushing on Marinette, he’d be cheering the guy on. Especially in science class, god that was amazing.

_“Hey Mari, are you made of copper and tellurium? Because you’re **Cu-Te.”**_

_“We must be subatomic particles, because I feel strong force between us.”_

_“You have to be a magnetic monopole because all I get from you is attraction, Mari.”_

Then of course, Nino’s personal favourite which had made him go into a fit of snorting laughter as he tried to contain himself.

_“Forget hydrogen, **you’re** my number one element.”_

Marinette continued to shrug them off with groans and eye rolls, and for the briefest of moments Nino thought that the guy maybe just was a bit of a flirt like that.

That was of course until you actually watch Adrien rather than just listen to him. The guy practically wore his heart on his sleeve. The only people he bothered getting close to it seemed where whoever Marinette introduced him to, and even then he kept it to acquaintances. Ivan seemed to be the only exception, strangely. Nino still didn’t understand that, the two didn’t seem to share anything in common at a glance.

Regardless, Nino was pretty sure a good majority of the class at this point were well aware of Adrien’s blatantly obvious and failed attempts to woo Marinette.

Other than that, the guy followed Marinette around like a cat practically mewing for attention. The comparison was apt, because whenever he got so much as a firm shoulder clasp Adrien got this goofy smile as his eyelids fluttered. What a dork.

Marinette and Adrien had seemed to form their own little duo, and they often talked with Rose, Juleka, Mylène and Ivan at breaks. Lunch the two of them usually disappeared off to god knows where.

Nino remembered that Alix had been convinced they were actually together as a couple and were going off for some make-out sessions until she too heard Adrien’s failed romantic advances.

Needless to say, Mylène and Alix now bothered to pay attention when Adrien talked in Mme. Bustier’s class since they were right behind him and Marinette. Yep, he wasn’t the only one laughing himself silly now. Mme. Bustier still had no clue why Alix of all people kept breaking into giggles at random intervals in her class.

Alya though didn’t have a high opinion of Adrien Agreste.

“He’s best pals with Chloé and you’re telling me he _didn’t_ know who Marinette was before he walked into the class?” She had snorted when he had enquired during their break on the previous Friday. “Handsome model boy just rocks up out of nowhere with Chloé, who you tell me has had it in for Marinette for years and then suddenly becomes best friends with her, _while_ flirting with every breath? Yeah I don’t think so. Agreste is likely just messing with the poor girl, I’ve seen his type before. Once he gets what he wants, he’ll just throw her away and jump back with Chloé. Honestly how invested can he be if he had been flirting with Rose as well?”

To be fair, Alya _did_ have a point. Unfortunately, she just had some of the information and had run with that. Nino distinctly remembered that the flirting hadn’t been an immediate thing; Adrien seemed to be as painfully shy as Marinette herself usually was at first. He was pretty much a stuttering mess for the first few days. The only person who seemed to be allowed to make contact with the guy without him looking like an animal ready to bolt was Marinette.

Yeah, it was probably unfortunate with the whole Rose thing, too. Rose was a romantic through and through though, and often over romanticised things. God knows how Juleka put up with it, must be from practice in dealing with her.

Regardless, Rose likely just had a bit of a celebrity crush on Adrien. The guy _was_ a famous model, and his dad was Gabriel Agreste, rich dude extraordinaire with a fashion empire.

Which was one reason Nino was super excited about going to Adrien’s party. It was going to have the best sound system money could buy and _he’d_ be the one DJ’ing it!

Only, there was one problem in the works. Namely, his parents.

“I’ve already made plans to go out today, it’s one of my friend’s birthday party!” Nino groaned, frustrated. He instead took out his temper by angrily blowing some bubbles with the wand dipper.

His mum shrugged absentmindedly as she zipped her jacket. “This is important to us Nino, it’s not as if we ask a lot of you! One night is all we’re asking for you to do the housework while we’re out. I’ve already put your dinner on anyway, and the laundry does need done.” She paused to shoot him an exasperated glare. “Oh, and do stop doing that in the house, _please._ Go to the window if you must.”

His dad was in his parent’s bedroom still while he tried in vain to convince his mum in the living room to allow him to go out.

Yeah he knew why they were doing this dinner; his dad was still trying to convince his mum out of the divorce she had been considering, and this was another of his bids to, what was it he said? Oh yeah, ‘rekindle that spark’ or some other sappy nonsense.

His dad was still in love with his mum while she… wasn’t. Nino preferred to not think about what had been gradually going in the last year. His dad’s shifts often changed every few weeks in and out, not helped by the times he’d be on call, seeing as he was an ambulance driver. His mum was sick to death of it, not helped by his grandmother’s passing on her side just there in November. Yeah, that had been a rough patch. A hollow Christmas and the nights that followed were filled with shouted arguments and tears over making ends meet along with the stress on their relationship.

He got all that. But frankly, he just wasn’t in an understanding mood.

“It’s not as if I’m like, out partying every weekend or night! One day is all I’m asking too!”

“And I said no. We can’t just cancel on the reservation.” She snapped back suddenly.

His mum raised a hand tiredly to forestall whatever he was going to retort with and just sighed before shooting him _that_ look.

“Don’t argue with me on this Nino, please. You don’t need to worry about this being a regular thing, there’ll be other days.”

The implications behind the sentence made him fall silent as she continued getting ready.

“Honey, are you ready? Come on, we don’t want to be late!”

They both winced at the falsely jolly voice.

“Just…” His mother trailed off, before patting Nino’s shoulder.

Nino wasn’t really paying attention, nor did he acknowledge the cheerful one sided conversation going on as they left.

He was too caught up in a myriad of emotions; helplessness, frustration and resentment bubbled to the surface over the others. He gripped the bubble wand tighter, straining the weak plastic.

He wasn’t paying attention enough to notice the open window in the living room overlooking the Parisian streets, nor did he notice the little butterfly enter with deceptive innocence, fluttering closer to his bubble wand.

* * *

 

While the party was in full swing, Adrien couldn’t help but notice Nino’s absence. Indeed, they were just playing a few requested songs until he turned up.

 _He’s just running a little late,_ Adrien reaffirmed for what felt like the fourth time. _He’ll be here soon._

He was briefly startled when a gentle hand clasped his shoulder, but Adrien quickly calmed when he realised it was Marinette.

“Nino’s probably just been held up, don’t worry. He wouldn’t miss this for the world.” She reassured him softly.

Adrien nodded gratefully.

“Just a little…” He exhaled instead of finishing, unable to find the words.

“Nervous?” Marinette guessed.

“Sort of. It’s my first party, so…” He managed to clarify. Thankfully, Marinette seemed to understand what he was trying to say.

“It’ll be fine, everyone here’s already having fun. You should relax and join in on that.”

“Then may the little lady give me the honour of her hand in a dance sometime today?” Adrien asked slyly.

Marinette laughed. “We’ll see, Birthday Boy. And I’ve still not paid you back for your height comments!”

“It’s my birthday, you can’t hit me for it!” Adrien retorted smugly. Marinette grinned, and suddenly his confidence evaporated to make way for nervous apprehension. “R- right?”

“ _Au contraire, mon ami._ ” Marinette purred. “I believe there _is_ something called ‘birthday dumps’.”

“What?”

“Also known as ‘punches’.”

“Oh, um-… You’re making this up, like that thing about swirlies, right? Right?!”

Fortunately for Adrien, he never found out if it was a thing as without warning, a bubble the height of a person dropped from the sky and sucked his bodyguard whom was looming by the house’s doors.

“Gorilla!” He yelled, racing to try and grab the man’s foot as the bubble started rising; however he wasn’t quick enough.

“Get indoors!” the normally gruff man bellowed, pounding on the deceptively strong sphere of liquid.

His classmates were panicking, drawing Adrien’s attention to the fact that this wasn’t the only bubble ascending to the sky; as far as the eye could see there were other people in similar situations, but strangely they were all adults.

“Today is your lucky day, little dudes!”

The empty bubbles changed to display the face of the newest akuma.

“The adults have taken the day off, so make the most of it! No chores, no homework, no more nagging, just fun, fun, fun, fun! This is the Bubbler's gift to you!”

“I guess he’s not going to target us?” Juleka asked hesitantly, just as Rose screamed.

The rest of the class quickly reacted; trying to determine what had frightened her, hey discovered that Juleka had perhaps spoken too soon.

 “Hey, hey, hey, birthday boy.” The Bubbler called out cheerfully, descending on top of one of his bubbles. “Guess what? Daddy's gone. While the cat's away, the mice will play.”

Adrien meanwhile was baffled, did the akuma know him? It took a moment for him to cycle through who was present and who it could possibly be before he realised.

“Nino?!” He gaped. What had happened to get him akumatized?!

“Sorry I’m late bro, but now we can get this party started!” The bubble popped and the Bubbler dropped down onto the stage. “Get over here and _dance_ people!”

Adrien meanwhile lingered by the doors to his home.

“What’s got you so antsy? Relax! You’re getting the party you’ve always wanted.” Plagg gruffly told him, peeking out.

“But Nino’s been akumatized! I’ve got to help him!” Adrien whispered back urgently.

“Bleh, so what? Enjoy the party, let the fox handle this one! Try to enjoy yourself.”

Adrien paused, mulling it over.

“You’re right.” He nodded. “I’m actually getting to have the party, might as well have fun at it. Vixen can take this one.”

* * *

 

Alya growled, running across the roofs of Paris.

After witnessing a bunch of enormous bubbles snatch the adults off the street, she immediately slipped into a nearby alleyway to transform.

“I just hope Ella and Etta stay in the park.” She murmured aloud, remembering her mother had taken them out earlier.

The villain this time seemed to have a gripe with adults, and she’d only seen his top half in those bubble screens so she had no clue what the akumatized object could be.

She really didn’t need to stress today, and had honestly hoped that the next akuma would come at the weekend, earliest.

Alya as Vixen had managed to strike an unsteady truce with the police force in regards to akuma incidents: they’d focus on evacuation and protection of civilians so she and Chat Noir could focus on the villain in question.

Indeed, they were apprehensive about combating magic related beings, for numerous reasons. They’d usually be horribly outmatched for one and the person in question wasn’t _actually_ guilty of what they were doing.

Oh they had hemmed and hawed around it, Lt. Raincomprix had even gone as far as to demand her identity, or even give her Miraculous to a more ‘trained’ and ‘qualified’ individual. One of them, to put it bluntly.

That then led into a very long and very exasperated explanation about how you needed to be _chosen_ to actually wield it, and she couldn’t reveal her identity. All it took was for one person to find out, Hawk Moth to either accidentally or purposely akumatize them and voila: he now knows who she is.

It was an uneasy truce out of necessity, but it was a truce nonetheless. The police would be working towards the same goal as them, rather than label them vigilantes.

Trixx was having a right laugh about it all, saying she was one of the most trustworthy foxes she ever had. It was nice to see the Kwami more cheerful, she  had been fluctuating between sullen silence and furious fervour at first. Apparently her own partner Miraculous was not in the care the Guardian, the person who gave Trixx to Alya, and the Kwami suspected that Hawk Moth had the Peacock Miraculous. Why else would she be called instead?

That had hurt Alya at first. The idea that she could have been passed over, unconsidered.

 _No,_ she vowed with conviction as she approached the Agreste residence; _I will prove I’m worthy, that I was the right choice. To Paris, to Hawk Moth, and to the Guardian!_

* * *

 

A man in a flat located within Hong Kong sat in an armchair, watching the news. It wasn’t a native channel however, rather it was covering an ongoing terrorist attack in France.

Not the run of the mill terrorist variety though, no. This involved magic.

Or, as the man knew intimately, _Miraculouses._

“So the Great Guardian did not make a mistake.” He murmured, sipping a tumbler of rum as he continued to watch some sort of bubble related akuma fight against the city’s fox hero.

He lowered the hand, covering it with the empty one as he pondered the new development, idly tapping his fingertips on the glass’s rim. The ring adorning the hand clinked with each move.

If it _had_ been a mistake, the Guardian would have retrieved the Butterfly Miraculous by now; instead he had activated two other Miraculouses to oppose this new threat. He didn’t know who it was who held it then.

“This…this is an opportunity.” He thought aloud, gazing out into the skyline. The living room had a very nice view, instead of a window there was a large wall of glass.

The door to the room opened, and a thinner man with sharp eyes entered. On his three piece suit sat a golden bird of prey pin. A rarer Miraculous; a loner without a circle, without a counterpart.

“You’ve heard?” The new arrival questioned rhetorically, eyeing the television.

“Indeed.” Replied the first. “It seems we can afford to pull a few from Tibet. We now have a more, ah… _confirmed_ location.”

“Not one, but three. Potentially more as well.” The second added.

The man in the chair nodded thoughtfully. “Perhaps the whole circle. The Black Cat alone…”

The standing man snorted. “I can go retrieve two. This, ‘Hawk Moth’ character, he may be… interested in the cause.”

The other stayed silent, choosing to sip his drink as he mulled it over.

“No,” he decided, “I think not, Archangel. We need someone a little more subtlety in this endeavour. Contact Portia; reconnaissance and observation only for now.”

The man now identified as Archangel inclined his head. “Yes, sir.”

Archangel left quietly, leaving his superior to his thoughts.

 _The confirmation of the location of three Miraculouses and possibly more is pleasing,_ he nodded to himself. _But can I really call off the search, though?_

He stroked the Ouroboros ring, admiring the small jewels making the snake’s eyes.

“I still wish to find my counterpart.” He said aloud after a moment.

A Kwami with slitted, clever eyes that had been previously lurking in the corner unnoticed approached.

“The Dragon will not be found easily.” Its voice came out in low, hissing syllables. “And it may be in the possession of another.”

“I know that Aapep.” The man replied, “I will not be giving the search up however. There is still a chance it is in Tibet.”

“It will not replace what you have lost.” Aapep warned.

The man smiled. “No, it won’t. But I will finish my father’s work at the very least, and destroy his enemy. The Great Guardian will suffer like he did.”

“Flexibility and Strength combined.” Aapep intoned. “Healing and Magic. It will be… powerful enough, and irreversible. There will be a price, Hans.”

Hans nodded. The snake wasn’t just for healing, however. Its venom inflicted decay. A beautiful duality. Corroding decay powered by Strength and Magic…

“Any price will be worth it.” He stated as venomously as a snake. “We will see how the Great Guardian takes losing _his_ Kwami. Wyazz will _die,_ Aapep; and Fu will know my father’s agony. Justice at long last, I think.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, late time to be posting this. Any issues or spelling errors let me know!


	5. Ramifications and Recreation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien finds the scarf, Gabriel head's off the potential problematic fallout, and Chat Noir runs into friends from school at the arcades.

* * *

“That was a rather lively party! Shame Vixen crashed it!” Plagg sniggered to Adrien.

Adrien snorted in reply, but was far more occupied with scanning the now unwrapped presents he had received. Adrien had realised he had potentially found an easy solution to deducing which present was from Marinette by the lack of a label, but she had outwitted him; several of his classmates had also neglected to add labels! Rolling his eyes, he opened the group chat that Rose had created for them. Currently it was himself, Marinette, Rose, Juleka, Ivan and Mylène. Well, technically Alix was in it, but she was rarely ever on social messaging.

* * *

 

> **Model Student: You lot planned this didn’t you?**
> 
> **Caffeine: no clue what you mean**
> 
> **Pretty in Pink: what are you talking about?Xx**
> 
> **Rock On: Need to be more specific.**

* * *

 Adrien chuckled. Yes it must be a complete coincidence that it was all them in the chat that lacked labels on their gifts. He let out a small laugh when he saw the indicator that showed Marinette was typing a message. Ivan had been pretty creative with the nicknames.

* * *

 

>    **Marinator: You didn’t think I’d make it that easy, did you? ;) They'll tell you what they gave you once you find mine~**

* * *

  _I really should have known better,_ Adrien mused with a smile.

Adrien examined the pile again; only one present remained but it was from his father.

“I’ve looked over them all, and I don’t think she’d hide the signature.” He murmured to himself, running a hand through his locks. “It would be inconspicuous, but not completely hidden, especially if I'm looking for it.”

“I think you’re looking too hard,” Plagg commented, “have you tried that one?”

“It’s from my father.” Adrien dismissed.

Plagg frowned, thinking.

Pausing, Adrien gave it some thought.

 _Could that actually be from Marinette,_ he wondered, _but Nathalie said it was from father..._

Shrugging, he unwrapped the packaging. Only one way to find out.

It was a beautiful light blue scarf that was heaven to hold.

“Handmade,” he murmured aloud, eyeing the wool as he ran his hands through it.

He scanned it curiously, inch by inch, until he found it. Near the beginning (or was it the end?) of the scarf, signed in a few shades lighter, was the initials ‘M.D.C’.

“It _is_ hers.” He breathed, excited.

Marinette made this for him. Him! He’d never had anything truly handmade from a friend before! But she had gone into all this effort, all those stitches…

“From your ‘father’, huh?” Plagg drawled.

Plagg’s snark made him remember why he had doubted this was Marinette’s gift.

“But- why…” He stuttered, fumbling.

Why would Nathalie say his father’s gift was actually Marinette’s? She had worked so hard on it, so much time spent, and from her own money-…

“He commissioned her.” Adrien whispered.

“What?” Plagg questioned.

“He commissioned her!” Adrien said louder, excited. “I told him she wanted to be a fashion designer, and that she was my friend! He must’ve commissioned her to make the scarf so it would be from both of them!”

His father _actually_ cared enough to pay attention to his friends, and he got him a hand-made present while at the same time he was _supporting_ one of his closest friends! Marinette had told him before that the majority of her fashion hobby was paid by herself, from working in the bakery and saved birthdays. His father would have obviously given her a good amount for the scarf, _and_ she’d be able to say that Gabriel Agreste commissioned her on a piece for his son!

Without pausing to listen to the Kwami, he raced out of the room, scarf in hand.

* * *

 

Gabriel leaned closer to his monitor screen, tensing.

“Where did he go off to?” He murmured, eyeing the subtitles.

His shoulders clenched as he watched the heroine shaking the cat bowl as she wandered through the house.

“Uh oh.” He inhaled, looking at the photos that had just been emailed to the character.

He _had_ been working, then he had ended up on Netflix, and this movie, ‘Hush’, it had caught his attention.

Gabriel’s hands gripped the desk as the heroine finally came face to face with the masked antagonist, the two looking at each other with only metres between them.

Then she was running for the door, running to lock it before he-

“GAH!” He jumped, heart racing as his office door slammed open to reveal his son. “I-I mean, Adrien?! What is the hurry?” He scrambled, pausing the movie.

“I- I just wanted to say,” Adrien heaved, trying to breathe, “thank you! Thank you for the present!”

Gabriel nodded, surprised.

 _Nathalie did well,_ he thought to himself.

“I mean, you even commissioned Mari- Marinette for it, so thank you for, well, thank you!”

Gabriel reeled as his son approached, showing him a scarf he was cradling.

“I, yes, it is a beautiful piece.” Gabriel nodded, and it really was. “But I don’t know what you mean, I commissioned it?”

Adrien laughed. “Of course you did, you can’t hide it! I mean Nathalie said it was from you, but I found her signature on it, look.”

Sure enough, there was a clear signature with the girl’s initials.

Gabriel processed it for a moment, before coming to several conclusions.

Nathalie hadn’t gone out and got a present, she had passed a girl’s present as coming from _him_.

Said girl was Adrien’s closest friend, who would definitely be talking to him either tonight or tomorrow, and then this would fall apart at the seams like a badly made dress.

Adrien doesn’t _know_ the girl wasn’t actually commissioned to make this, and has come to the conclusion that he had actually went out of his way to do so.

Lastly, _Nathalie had **not** done well._

“Well, I’m glad you like it Adrien.” Gabriel said calmly, pausing to admire how his voice hadn't shook.

 _Ever since I’ve been using that Miraculous, I’ve been susceptible to going along with change,_ he mused, _I hated it before but it really is quite useful in such scenarios._

Said adaptability to change and unexpected happenings allowed him to come up with a plan on the fly.

“If you’ll excuse me Adrien, I forgot I have an appointment later today.” Gabriel said, standing. “I’ll see you to your room, and do make a start on the homework you promised to do.”

“I will father, thank you for today!” Adrien smiled widely up at him, and Gabriel gave a small smile back. It didn't lessen the rising guilt and fury, however.

* * *

 

Gabriel drummed on the soft handle of his seat as Mathis drove him to his destination.

They were in one of the more… discreet cars he owned; wouldn’t do for people to wonder why he was visiting a bakery of all places in person.

However, he wasn’t alone in the automobile, no. His personal assistant was sat beside him.

“I’m sure by now you’re wondering where we’re going.” He said pleasantly.

“…Yes, sir? You have no appointments for this time.” Nathalie replied, double checking her tablet.

Gabriel hummed, knowing that he was free between four and five. “No, this is a rather spur of the moment thing. Short notice.”

He paused for a moment.

“Adrien quite liked his gift.” He continued breezily.

Nathalie hesitated at the sudden subject change.

“S-sir?”

“Tell me Nathalie. Where did you buy it from?”

It was quiet in the car.

“Hmm, it was a very nice present Nathalie, if I recall right it was a book on ‘pranking’ your father.”

Nathalie paled. “I- I thought Adrien would appreciate the humour-“

Gabriel interrupted, tsking. 

“Come now, Nathalie. Why do you continue this farce? We both know you didn't get him that present, because in your ingenuity the very gift you appropriated, a _scarf_ actually, was signed!”

Nathalie shrunk back from Gabriel at his sudden increase in volume.

 Gabriel noticed, and didn’t care. Quite frankly, he was outraged and he would make it known to her.

“A gift signed M.D.C, Adrien’s closest friend! Very clever of you Nathalie, the girl will surely _not_ object to her present being hijacked in my name! You _lied_ to me, you _lied_ to Adrien, and the backlash of this mess is likely to be costly! All that girl has to do is run to the media, or she could easily turn Adrien against me over this!”

Gabriel breathed deeply, trying to calm himself.

“However, you are _lucky._ Very lucky indeed. Adrien has come to the conclusion I commissioned the girl for it, and that is the story that shall be stuck by.”

“Is- is that where we are going, sir?” Nathalie asked feebly.

“Yes. I will… explain your transgressions to the girl, _you will apologise_ to her, and we will see what figure sum buys her silence and co-operation.”

Nathalie quailed, and Gabriel allowed himself to feel a grim sense of satisfaction.

"Oh, and _Mme. Sancoeur_? Consider yourself fired, for now. However," Gabriel paused as his secretary paled, thinking.

 _Thinking optimistically,_ he mused, _this is a good opportunity to assess this girl._

 "I am feeling... generous. Adrien does seem to like you after all, and I'd _hate_ to have to go into the bother of replacing you. But I will, if I need to. We'll let the matter of your employment rest with the, hmm, 'aggrieved party'."

Nathalie seemed to realise just then what he was implying.

"We shall find out very soon if Mme. Dupain-Cheng feeling as generous as I am today."  Gabriel gave a quiet chuckle.

* * *

 

"Marinette! Please come downstairs!"

Marinette let out the breath she was holding, gently easing out of the pose.

She knew she stressed easily, so on the recommendation of her mother had took up yoga about six months ago. It was a calming thing that she could do from the comfort of her own bedroom, and it meant she was still keeping fit on the days she wasn't able to go to the gym which she had only been a member at for two months. There was the exercise benefits after all to yoga.

Gaming was her hobby, fashion and art was her passions but keeping fit was a mentality. Her papa was on the larger side, same with the family on her mother's side. As much as she loved her family, she preferred staying petite.  It was a good habit to get into for later life, and if she was anything, she was a planner.

Yes, she didn't deal well with sudden surprises.

Which was why she completely forgot her breathing exercises and started panicking when she saw Gabriel Agreste on the living room couch, his assistant beside him as they both nursed a cup of tea.

"I'll leave you to the business." Her mother said, quietly leaving the room.

"Mme. Dupain-Cheng." He greeted her shortly, one eyebrow raised at her exercise attire. "Are we interrupting something?"

"I- no, no sir!" She squeaked out a reply. "Just some ah, yoga, so..."

M. Agreste gave an thoughtful nod, gesturing for her to take a seat. Marinette done so, pulling out one of the kitchen stools. The man paused to sip the tea, before setting it down.

"I am sure you're curious as to why I am here, particularly after how our last conversation went." He said at last. "Firstly, are you familiar with Nathalie?"

"I- Adrien has mentioned her, sir. Your assistant; we spoke over the intercom today."

"Good, secondly: you send Adrien a scarf for his birthday, yes?"

"I did, sir." She hesitated, wondering if she should ask why he was asking this, but after a moment thought the better of it.

 _He probably has a reason,_ Marinette thought to herself.

This seemed like the right course of action as M. Agreste gave an approving half-smile, which then morphed into a grimace.

"Now that both of those are clarified, I shall get to the point. Your gift was appropriated by Mme. Sancoeur here, and was given to Adrien under the pretence it was from me."

Marinette gaped, but M. Agreste wasn't finished.

"Adrien of course, was aware that it was made by you. Clever of you to taking to signing your works. Yes, he caught onto that and confronted me. _However,_ he seems to believe I commissioned you to make it."

M. Agreste paused to drink the tea again, allowing the information to settle.

"This is why I have come to you, Mme. Dupain-Cheng. Frankly, I am quite happy with Adrien's version of events, and I wish to keep it that way, so I have to ask: how much?"

"W-what?" She asked weakly. "How much?"

"How much for your silence, girl." M. Agreste clarified impatiently. "I have better things to do than dealing with the media over this, and Adrien's additional resentment and upset. I wish to avoid both, so how much will it cost for you to go along with this version of events? Name your figure." He said, waving a hand nonchalantly.

Marinette paused, taking a deep breath to try and make sense of it all.

"Why?" She asked, directing it at Mme. Sancoeur. "Why did you- why take it? Why lie? Why steal?"

She didn't like liars. Marinette just wanted to understand why she would do such a thing.

Mme. Sancoeur's eyes darted to her boss's, who also looked interested in her answer. He gave a nod.

"I- I panicked." She admitted. "After your visit, M. Agreste asked me if I had gotten Adrien's present. I didn't know he had requested me to do this, I must have missed the message or forgotten the conversation, but I panicked."

It all came out in a rush, but Marinette understood.

"So, my present. It was just-..."

"It was lying there, yes." Mme. Sancoeur nodded meekly. "I- I didn't have enough time to get Adrien a present, I was so busy...  I didn't think. I'm so sorry."

"As of right now, Mme. Sancoeur is fired." M. Agreste informed Marinette to her shock. "However, I felt it would be better to leave if that remains up to you, the aggrieved party in this. She stole from you, after all. Not me."

Marinette stared at the man, mouth open. He simply looked back, unfettered.

"If you like, I can even inform the authorit-" M. Agreste started to offer before Marinette jumped in.

"No! No, of course not!" She paused to look at the woman, who was now borderline terrified. "It... It was just a mistake, Monsieur Agreste. I'm not going to hold it against her, she's already apologised."

M. Agreste didn't say anything in reply, not even flinching in his watchful gaze of her when his assistant gave out a sobbed 'thank you'.

"You're a kind person, Mme. Dupain-Cheng." He said finally. "Kinder than I would have been. Is it kindness or naivety, however?"

"I like to think it's kindness, _sir."_ She replied with no small amount of bite. "If it was a repeated thing, of course I wouldn't just dismiss it. But I like to think the better of people first."

M. Agreste didn't say anything. After a few beats of silence, he changed to subject.

"You never answered: how much?"

After seeing how willing he was to dismiss his assistant however, Marinette didn't feel like beating around the bush about all of this.

"Nothing." She replied simply.

"Don't be silly, girl." M. Agreste snapped at her. " _How much for your-_ "

"Adrien is my _friend,_ Monsieur Agreste." She snapped right back. "I didn't make him a present expecting money out of it! I did it because he's my closest friend, not out of an expectation of a _reward_!"

It reminded her far too much of Chloé and Sabrina's friendship. Chloé giving her shiny trinkets as a reward or bribe, she never knew which with them. It was _wrong._ Like hell was she going to be like that with Adrien!

This was all just so _wrong._ Why would M. Agreste do this? Was he truly that concerned with his media image?

"I won't be going to the newspapers either so you don't need to worry about that either. It would affect Adrien as well, sir, and I don't want that. I don't like lying, but I also don't want to upset Adrien unnecessarily, either. So keep your money, and let Madame Sancoeur keep her job!"

It was quiet in the room, the only noise filtering through was the hustle and bustle of the below bakery.

"I was right about you being demanding." M. Agreste finally commented. "And naive."

"I prefer to think of it as kindness, sir." Marinette couldn't help but snark, before paling.

_Oh god why did I just do that oh-_

M. Agreste instead chuckled. He looked at her differently now, as if examining her under a new light.

"Nathalie here tried to pass of your scarf as coming from me. I would have been insulted to have my name used in conjunction for an amateurs work, had it not been a remarkable piece."

He took his wallet from his pocket and started counting out money, ignoring Marinette's vocal protests.

"I am not paying you for your silence, girl." He retorted. "I'm paying you for a good scarf. Otherwise, I would be stealing from you."

 _I really can't argue that can I,_ Marinette grimaced. He did have her there. 

"My name is 'Marinette', not 'girl'." She instead grumbled petulantly to herself.

"Marinette." M. Agreste corrected himself, ignoring her wide eyed look. "I do have another ulterior motive for paying this money, however."

Marinette didn't bother asking, knowing he was going to tell her anyway.

M. Agreste smirked at her silence.

"I have a competition I will be judging next week." He informed her. "You're likely to be informed soon at your school anyway. The goal is a Derby Hat design. Frankly, I would hate to have such a promising designer unable to utilise their full potential due to a lack of funds, so now you have no excuse, _Marinette._ "

"Tha- thank you sir!" She stammered out.

The man sniffed indifferently. "I expect something excellent from you, don't disappoint me. The winning one will be modelled personally by Adrien after all, and I don't attach the _Gabriel_ brand to sloppy works. "

Marinette was already thinking of potential ideas and designs, not noticing that the guests were preparing to leave; she quickly jumped to her feet in response.

"Also..." M. Agreste paused. "I am unsure if this has came up in your discussions with Adrien, but he is allergic to feathers."

"So if I'm going to use them in my design, replace them with synthetics?"

M. Agreste gave an approving nod. "Indeed. Good luck, Marinette. I say this because I am a biased judge, and I will be expecting far better from you than the others. I repeat, don't disappoint me."

"I won't sir." Marinette promised.

M. Agreste nodded. "See that you don't."

As soon as they left the room and she couldn't hear their footsteps, Marinette collapsed weakly on to the couch face first.

"Good talk?" She heard her maman ask hesitantly from the doorway, having just entered.

"Mph!" Marinette gave her muffled reply.

"Monsieur Agreste had said he wished to speak with you about business." Her maman said hesitantly. "So we sent him up. Did everything go okay?"

"Fine!" Marinette lifted her head slightly to give an understandable response. "Just... draining."

Maman nodded sagely to her, before making her way back downstairs to help her papa with the business.

"No pressure Marinette." She mumbled to herself, groaning as she lifted up off the couch. "Just Gabriel Agreste expecting great things from you. No pressure at all."

Why did it feel like she was the one who had lost in this?

\---

Gabriel hummed to himself as they made the car journey home.

"I believe I may have been too hasty in my assessment of the- Marinette, before." He stated.

Nathalie said nothing.

Truly remarkable, and an excellent opportunity. If he thought she was cunning, Gabriel would have considered that she requested Nathalie remain in her job purely as a benefit to herself; an ally within the Agreste household, very useful in the case of Adrien.

Yet that cunning and conniving wasn't present, and she simply wasn't a good enough actor to hide it. Then again, kindness had a way of indebting all on its own without calculated planning. Kindness, and a quiet, inner strength that came out in brief moments.

He could work with that.

This was an excellent opportunity. Adrien was simply not interested in succeeding him at the reins of _Gabriel,_ and it would be detrimental to push for it. However young Marinette had talent, oh yes. Talent that could be honed, kindness that would inspire loyalty and support from employees, but tempered with a quiet, burning strength. It just needed a gentle, guiding and nurturing hand.

Gabriel could work with her.

Plus, Adrien was already interested in her. Good to know his son had some sense about him. Perhaps he wasn't such a bad judge of character after all...

 _Baby steps Gabriel, baby steps,_ he reminded himself. _One thing at a time._

Adrien needed a push, and rarely asked for permission for things. Marinette clearly lacked the confidence which he would work on, among other things.

Ah, of course... an easy way to kill two birds with one stone.

"Nathalie, I do believe that Adrien's Chinese lessons can be cancelled." Gabriel stated. "See to it."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

 

Adrien grimaced as he rubbed his sore wrist, having just finished all the homework he had promised his father he'd do.

Glancing at the clock, he groaned. Six o'clock. How had it gotten so late?

Cracking his neck, he eyed the bedroom window. He was starting to feel a little cooped up in here.

Ah yes, he remembered that he was _supposed_ to 'patrol' tonight, or something. Vixen had said on the Sunday she had worked something out with the police, wherein the friendly neighbourhood superheroes would keep Paris aware of their existence as some sort of... crime deterrent.

Adrien honestly disagreed with the whole thing. Crime was crime, it was going to happen in Paris regardless of Hawk Moth or not. The last thing they needed was to be tired and unable to fight in the event of an akuma.

But at this point, he just shrugged. It'd placate her and the police if he co-operated with the silly endeavour, plus, it might help endear him to the public. Lay to rest the idea of Chat Noir being the dangerous recluse and all that.

Vixen said she'd be patrolling Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and he could do the other days. Sunday she said to just leave since they meet up regardless on it.

"Argh, I forgot since today had an akuma I'll have to meet up with her." Adrien groaned to himself.

Whatever, he might as well go out for a 'patrol' run anyway.

* * *

 

Yoga, Marinette discovered, didn't allow her to relax nearly as much after meeting with Gabriel Agreste than visiting the arcades did with Nino, Rose, Juleka, Ivan and Mylène. They'd messaged Adrien in the group chat, and she had even dropped him a text but he must be busy.

"Is the dude not coming?" Nino asked, frowning. "Damn, I was gonna apologise for the whole villain thing too. Guess I must've ruined his party."

"Don't worry about it Nino." Marinette reassured him. "We were joking about it afterwards, he was fine with it. Most likely he's just busy with tutors or something."

"You were a pretty cool akuma, Nino." Ivan chuckled. "All you wanted to do was party. Beats going all King Kong on the Eiffel Tower."

Nino laughed. "Yeah, but you were still the first one man!"

"Ive been meaning to say, did you guys see Vixen last night?!" Rose asked them as they made their way towards the arcades.

"No, why?" Marinette asked, curious.

"She was on the rooftops running through the city and I heard she even broke up a few muggings that were happening!"

"Do you think Chat Noir is going to be doing that too?" Mylène questioned.

"Guy seems pretty cool, so who knows." Ivan shrugged.

"He didn't turn up today though, for the akuma fight." Juleka stated, offering Nino an apologetic look which he waved off.

"Probably just busy." Nino replied. "He might already be a busy dude, plus the hero business as well."

"I hear him and Vixen aren't exactly chums though." Ivan pondered as they arrived at the doors.

"Well maybe- OH MY GOD LOOK, CHAT NOIR!"

They all started at Rose's scream, eyes snapping to where she was pointing.

There, running along the roofs across from them was indeed Chat Noir, and he had just stopped.

"I think he heard you." Mylène whispered.

Rose squeaked something unintelligible that sounded like a strangled penguin to Marinette's ears.

The cat themed superhero suddenly jumped without warning, propelling himself into the air via his baton. They jumped back as the arc dropped him before them, making a surprisingly soft landing.

"Did somebody say my name?" The superhero purred, his baton now compact behind his head and either end settled against the crook of his wrists.

The voice was a bit of a shock to them, none of them having heard him actually speak before at all. As far as Marinette remembered, he hadn't actually appeared on television yet where he had said anything audible.

Rose's strangled penguin nose ascended to the pitch of a dying bird.

"You looked taller before." Ivan suddenly said.

Chat Noir laughed, transferring the baton to its holder-thing.

"From such a big guy, I'll take it as a compliment." He snickered, eyeing each of them in turn. When his eyes settled on Marinette, they widened a tad, as did his smile.

"Now," his voice dropped back to the purr, "I would recognise _you_ anywhere."

"Me?" Marinette asked, as the rest of the group said 'Her?'.

"Why yes." Chat Noir chuckled. "A moment of your time, my lady?"

Marinette followed him out of earshot of her friends, baffled.

"I just want to check that I am right, though when it comes to a beautiful lady like yourself, I doubt I am mistaken." The superhero told her, smirking.

Marinette raised her eyebrows, not giving him the satisfaction of any sort of stammering. The light blush dusting her cheeks couldn't be helped though.

"Last week, I believe you and a few friends ended up on the wrong street with some of those golems. I just want to say thank you for giving Foxy this old thing here after I dropped it."  He told her, patting his baton.

"If I remember right you _threw_ it," Marinette countered, "so thank _you_ for saving my life."

"Not a problem little lady." Chat Noir nodded to her, smiling. "I wouldn't want to keep you from your friends, though."

"So Marinette, you got yourself a hot date with a superhero?" Ivan asked slyly as they returned, ignoring the scolding look Mylène gave him.

"I'm afraid dear Marinette is _far_ out of this tom cat's league big fella." Chat Noir laughed. "Just wanted to thank her for helping out before. I best let you get back to your night though."

"Why don't you stay?" Rose asked, blushing.

Chat Noir paused, tilting his head slightly.

"Yeah, be pretty cool. We're just going into the arcades here, anyway." Juleka said.

Chat Noir gave a small smile. "I wouldn't want to be a-"

"You're not being a bother." Marinette interrupted. "It's the least we can do anyway to say thank you."

Chat Noir sighed, looking at each of their hopeful faces.

"I guess I can take some time out." He said begrudgingly, though it was betrayed by the grin.

* * *

 

"Does your baton thing get wi-fi or apps?" Nino asked as he faced off against the superhero at the Basketball machine before the audience of their friends and a few interlopers watching Chat Noir.

Chat Noir hummed as he started shooting. "You know, I've not actually tried it. I have been wondering if I can get Spotify on it, will make these patrols go by faster..."

"Duuuude." Nino drawled out, wincing as he _just_ hit the rim on his previous shot. "If you can, I can make you some sick mixes. Dubstep, Chillstep, whatever you're into bud."

"I'm more of a classical piano slash instrumental guy," Chat Noir confessed as he continued to land consecutive shots, "but I'm willing to try what you suggest."

The hero paused, before smirking slyly, only seen by Nino's glance as his brief moment of silence.

"Say, Marinette," Chat Noir started, continuing his shooting, "Do you mind checking my baton to see if it gets Spotify? I would myself, buuuut..."

Marinette's cheeks pinked, but she nodded nonetheless, before realising he couldn't see her and gave a verbal reply.

As she reached out however, Chat Noir started swaying his hips, as if he needed to when shooting.

"Whenever you can my lady." The superhero purred, giving her a quick glance over the shoulder.

 _Oh he knows what he's doing,_ she fumed.

Biting her lip, she made a quick snatch for it, but briefly made contact with the leather like material.

Ivan whistled, while Juleka laughed. Marinette wished she'd just stop blushing.

"How do you even work this thing?" Marinette demanded, ignoring the onlookers.

"It's like a smartphone," Chat Noir explained, "just stay clear of the contact book, rather not accidentally phone Foxy and get a scolding."

After a brief navigation, she couldn't find anything resembling an app store. Marinette did however, find a search function, and a brief entry revealed something interesting.

"You can search for whatever you want on this!" She exclaimed. "Apps, movies, images... It's like a browser and app store rolled into one."

"Sweet!" Chat Noir called. "Now since you know your way around it by now, go to the contacts."

"Ooookay." Marinette frowned, doing so.

"Now put in your number."

Marinette scowled as the rest of their little party laughed.

"And put in, erm... What's your name?"

"Nino!"

"Yeah, Nino! Put his in!"

* * *

 

Eventually the boy's game of basketball ended with a clear winner.

"How does that even work?" Nino complained as they wandered away. "You have claws, man. _Claws!"_

Chat Noir held up one paw, devoid of claws. A small flex of the fingers unsheathed them, the reverse sheathing with an audible _shick_ each time.

"That's pretty wicked." Juleka commented.

"Plus, you played yourself Nino. I'm rather good at basketball." Chat Noir grinned, before clasping his paws. "So, what next?!"

* * *

 

"I resent this. I utterly resent this, and you, you... wicked imp."

Marinette smiled sweetly.

"Suck it up Kitty Cat."

Chat Noir groaned as he missed yet another on the crane.

"These things are greased I tell you, greased!"

"I don't get it." Mylène wondered. "How can you be good at basketball but not this?"

"Because basketball isn't luck based, and as much as these liars like to pretend, this isn't based on precision!"

"Well, you did make the bet that you could totally get that... Nanner." Nino shrugged.

"Nadder, Deadly Nadder!" Marinette hissed. "Don't you go mocking one of my favourite films!"

"I thought the dragon was supposed to be the spitfire." Ivan muttered as Mylène, Rose and Juleka laughed.

* * *

 

They stopped briefly to get sodas and a bite to eat, at the cafe within the arcade, and Chat Noir took the time to get some selfies with the fans who had been lingering about. More and more were coming down to the arcade, apparently the news had gotten out he was there.

Not that it seemed to bother him, though, as the superhero took it in stride.

"I imagined him more like Batman." Juleka commented after sipping her Fanta. "Y'know, more... brooding."

Ivan shrugged. "Not that bad a guy, he is about our age remember. He's friendly enough."

"I'll say." Marinette muttered, ignoring the titters of laughter, instead choosing to focus on her drink.

* * *

 

Marinette eyed the superhero beside her thoughtfully as they sat near the pool tables.

They decided to do a tournament, and both of them had lost straight away. Marinette, clumsy as ever, potted the black on her third shot, while Chat Noir gave up after his second. Evidentially, pool was a delicate game that required precise power. Needless to say, he needed to work on controlling his strength if he didn't want to send the white ball flying for passerby skulls whenever he took a shot.

"didn't you have a bell before?" She asked, making hesitant conversation. "I think I remember seeing one..."

Chat Noir paused, and she could see his shoulders tensing slightly.

"Made some changes to the costume." He said to her, shooting a smile. For some reason, it felt familiar in a way she knew it wasn't quite right. Déjà vu was odd like that.

"Speaking of which, what is that made of, anyway?" Marinette questioned, changing the subject. "It's not leather, you wouldn't be able to move that well, and I _doubt_ it's latex or spandex."

Chat Noir grinned widely, tapping his nose with a claw. "'Tis a secret my lady."

"Oh come on!" Marinette whined. "I _need_ to know."

Chat Noir hummed, before sighing. "Very well, very well. Come in close though, I don't want it overheard. You need to keep it secret."

Marinette leaned in, offering her ear. She repressed a shiver as his breath tickled her ear.

"It's made of..."

She tensed.

"... Boyfriend Material."

Marinette groaned. Chat Noir laughed.

* * *

 

"So what's it like?" Marinette asked as sipped their shared soda. She'd waved off getting another, knowing she wouldn't be able to finish it. Surprisingly, the final game was between Rose and Mylène.

"Being a superhero?" Chat clarified. "It's... It is what it is, y'know?"

"No, I don't." She giggled, punching his shoulder. "That's why I'm asking, doofus."

Chat chuckled. "I'll admit, I kind of like the excitement of it all. But there's a lot of responsibility as well, kind of weighs. Plus, I'm not really well, 'eager', to use my powers. Most of them lean towards destruction, you see." Here he paused to sigh. "People are already afraid enough, that I don't want to demonstrate them. Plus, what if I mess up?"

Marinette paused to think while Chat took a sip.

"I think..." She started hesitantly, before trailing off. Chat however gave her an encouraging nod. "I think, that it was more of the... unknown, that was scary."

"The unknown?" Chat asked, curious as to what she meant.

"Well, with Vixen, everybody knew her powers on the second day, you know?" Marinette explained, playing with the straw idly. "With you though... you were- are, still, a mystery. I mean, we hadn't heard you talk until today! Vixen's given interviews  though, she's been more... personable?"

Marinette stopped, worried she had hurt his feelings. However Chat looked more thoughtful than anything to her.

"So," he started unsurely, "if I interacted more, people would be less scared of me?"

Marinette laughed. "Well, yeah! What do you think you're doing the now?"

Chat started, looking around the arcade hall. Instead of just looking, he _looked._

Something was playing behind his eyes that Marinette couldn't quite fathom. It was almost as if he had forgotten he was there.

"You're right, plus, this has been fun." Chat smiled at her. "Thanks, Mari."

"Marinette." She corrected.

Chat raised his eyebrows. "You don't like nicknames, my lady?"

"I do." Marinette replied, looking away.

She could feel Chat's eyes burning into her, and when she turned back he didn't bother hiding his assessing gaze. Eventually, he gave her a small half smile.

"So, aside from relaxing in the arcades with my adoring fans," here he wiggled his eyebrows at her, ignoring her exasperated huff, "what else do you suggest?"

Marinette shrugged. "I'm not sure. You're a superhero, do superheroey things."

"Like?"

"Merchandise, maybe?" Marinette offered.

Chat grimaced. "One, I don't want the money. Two, I couldn't accept it regardless, I doubt I could set up a legal 'Chat Noir' bank account, for one. Or apply for a trademark, or something."

Marinette shrugged helplessly. "Well why not cut a deal with a business then, or someone you trust? They make it, and you sponsor it as Chat Noir?"

Chat hummed thoughtfully, sipping their nearly empty soda.

"That's not a bad idea." He finally said. "You interested?"

"Me?!" Marinette squeaked. "Why?"

Chat made to start speaking, but paused. "Well, you came up with the idea. Are you any good at making toys, plushies, clothing...?"

"Well, it's a hobby, but..." Marinette admitted.

"Well, there you go!" Chat beamed. "Listen, I'd rather go with someone trustworthy, and who better than my number one fan?"

Marinette glared as he winked at her unabashedly. They both turned to watch the pool game which was neck and neck at this point. Rose only had the black ball left to pot, while Mylène had one of her coloured balls on the table.

"I'll... I'll give it a go." She said after thinking it over. "But, and I mean this... you wait until I'm ready to go, announcing or whatever. I'll need some time to make stock and stuff."

"Whatever you need, princess." Chat smirked.

"Okay, seriously?" She complained. "Why this one? I resent it."

"No, you represent it." He quipped. Chat paused, before smiling softly at her. Marinette found she couldn't break eye contact with him. "You're a good leader and a people person. Besides, I like a girl who takes charge."

Marinette scowled, but forced herself to look away. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her flushed face.

* * *

 

"You alright Marinette?" Ivan rumbled to her as they sat at the sidelines, joined by Mylène.

Chat was busy facing off against Rose and Juleka with Nino as his teammate at the hockey machine.

"Yeah, why?" She asked, surprised.

"I know what I said before," Ivan said, "but seriously, if he's bothering you, we can have a word, or go, or... get in touch with Vixen-"

"No, god no!" Marinette yelped, briefly drawing Chat's attention. At Ninos frantic urging however, the superhero returned his attention to the game at hand.

"It's just..." Marinette said, quieter, "he's a bit... flirty? Just not used to that." She gave a small laugh. "I mean, there's Adrien. But, that's  _Adrien,_ you know? It's different."

Ivan frowned thoughtfully, while Mylène bit her lip.

"I don't really think Chat Noir is like that." Mylène said hesitantly. "I mean, yes, but..."

"Flirty yes, a flirt, no. The guy seems fixated on you." Ivan clarified, nodding at Mylène's grateful smile. "What was it he wanted to speak to you about before?"

Marinette waved them off. "It was just- you know when we were kinda stupid and ran out when, when you were akumatized?"

Ivan nodded. "I heard about it later, yeah. Why?"

"Well, long story short, he saved my life." Marinette explained. "He was fighting your little minions when one of the cars they threw was going to squash me. Luckily he threw that baton thing and stopped it. 'Course, he got took by them after that and had to leave it behind; I gave it to Vixen to give to him."

She hadn't noticed until now, but Ivan's face was pale, while Mylène clutched his hand reassuringly.

"Ivan, it wasn't your fault!" Marinette stated furiously.

"You could have been killed though." He mumbled.

"But I wasn't and I won't be because we have two superheroes, so don't worry."

Ivan nodded absentmindedly, but it was good enough for Marinette.

The last thing she wanted was for him to isolate himself again, be it out of guilt or for other reasons. Ivan had always been rather hesitant to interact with everyone outside of school, and it was good to see him out enjoying himself.

 _It's strange,_ Marinette mused as Chat whooped after scoring, _how it took superheroes and villains to bring everyone closer._

* * *

 

"See you guys tomorrow at school!" Marinette waved to her friends as they parted ways outside the arcade.

Chat however was still lingering.

"What's wrong?" She asked curiously.

Chat smiled hesitantly.

"Just going to make sure the princess get's home safe." He said nonchalantly.

Marinette shook her head.

"It's only five minutes away, you don't need to!"

"But I want to." Chat replied simply.

Marinette fumed. "You think I can't defend myself?"

"On the contrary, I think you can." Chat answered. "But frankly, I'd worry. You're the only one by yourself walking home, so for my peace of mind, _please._ "

"Well- well... you'll need to go home yourself as well then!" Marinette retorted.

Chat didn't say anything.

Marinette blushed.

"Right, superhero... I forgot." She admitted sheepishly.

Chat chuckled as they started walking.

"I think I'll take erm, Nino, up on his offer of music." The feline themed superhero told her. "But I'm going to need some Bluetooth headphones."

"Okay?" Marinette said, curious about where he was going with this.

"If I got a pair, could you bling them up?"

"You want me to pimp your headphones?" Marinette deadpanned.

"I think they'd look cool!" Chat defended his decision.

"So, get some stickers or something." Marinette suggested.

"Well, I was hoping, um... you're good at making things, right? You're a decent artist?"

"Where are you going with this?"

Chat sighed. "Well, I thought it would be pretty cool if you done like a... logo, or a, you know, 'Chat Noir' signature for them. That way, when people ask, I can say you made them. Free advertising, plus you can use it on the other merch! Neat, huh?"

Marinette bit her lip, furrowing her eyebrows as she thought it over.

"That's... surprisingly a good idea." She said, baffled.

"Cut me some slack, this cat can be a smooth operator." Chat preened.

"Fine, I'll 'bling' your headphones for you." Marinette giggled.

 "I'm going to be the coolest cat in Paris." Chat smirked.

"You're a dork." Marinette declared. "Honestly, if Adrien was here today, you two would've gotten along so well."

Chat laughed, but it had a strange wobble to it.

 _Odd,_ Marinette thought.

"Y-yeah! A shame! Well, I best get going anyway, this is your place right?"

"Oh!" Marinette exclaimed, surprised that they were already at the bakery. "So it is! How'd you know?"

Chat gave the same laugh.

"Well um, the name! That's your parents, right?"

Marinette nodded. "I forgot I told you that."

Chat flashed a grin. "Well, now that the princess has been seen to her tower safely, my work is finished."

"My tower, huh?" Marinette snorted. "Who am I, Rapunzel? "

"Of course not princess, your beautiful hair is far fairer." Chat purred.

Marinette pinked, and quickly stopped herself from playing with her pigtails.

"R-right!" She babbled. "Well, thanks anyway!"

"Not a problem, _mon cheri._ " Chat winked, dipping into a slow enough bow that he could take her hand and kiss it.

"You!-you, are a rouge. That's what you are." Marinette glared, snatching her hand back.

"Your rouge." Chat nodded. "But I digress, I much be going princess. Have a good night."

Marinette watched the superhero pole vault onto the nearby rooftops before sprinting off into the night.

It was a few moments after the hero disappeared out of sight that Marinette realised she was still outside in the cold. Smiling, she entered the bakery, the warm air and smell of fresh bread welcoming her home.

* * *

 

Adrien detransformed just as he made his landing on the ledge of the open window to his bathroom.

Ignoring Plagg he calmly dropped down quietly and walked into his room, crawled onto the bed and let out the pent up screams into the pillows.

"Are... are you okay, kid?" He heard Plagg ask, hovering somewhere behind his head.

"Today has been... _awesome._ " Adrien announced, lifting his head slightly so the Kwami could hear him.

"Oooookay?"

"I had an amazing birthday party, even with it being crashed, I went out for a run as Chat Noir and ran into my friends and _went to the arcades!_ "

"Yeah, I noticed." Plagg replied dryly. "I was also kinda present for all this."

"I've never been to the arcades before, it was awesome! But Marinette! Marinette!"

"What about her?"

"She-she, just she..." Adrien tried to find the best way to explain it. "It's all well and good joking around with her out of the costume, but I wouldn't be able to maybe, you know, down the line..."

"Ohhh..." Plagg drawled, finally understanding. "You think that since you can't get her as a girlfriend as _Adrien,_ you can try as _Chat Noir_."

"Exactly!" Adrien beamed, but paused when he noticed the Kwami wasn't sharing his enthusiasm. "What?"

"Kid..." Plagg sighed, rubbing his face with his paw, "there are, _so many ways,_ that this is a bad idea, and will not work."

"What?!" Adrien yelped, confused. "Why?!"

Plagg went to close his fingers on one paw and raised one for each point he made, before realising he didn't have fingers. Instead, he emphasised each point it with a slow clap. "One, you are a dork. She knows this, you know this. She will just think that Adrien and Chat Noir are dorks. Quite literally, _nothing will change._ Two, I don't even know humans that well, but how do you think this will work when you can't even tell her your _name?!_ Three, three! You are a superhero! How is this any different to being a famous model?! You make zero sense, kid!"

Adrien pursed his lips, before mimicking the Kwami, taking glee in the glower that he had fingers. "One, I am a dork yes, but I plan on _wooing_ her. Romance, being a gentleman. Instead of puns, meaningful compliments. Okay, maybe some puns. Two, well... I don't even know if we'll get as far as me, me asking her out."

Adrien paused to take a breath. Oh god, how do you ask girls out?!

"Any- anyway, we can cross that bridge when we get to it. It might work, but if it doesn't I can tell her! Three-"

"No, no! No telling names!" Plagg yelled.

"Why?!" Adrien demanded, faustrated.

"Why?" Plagg repeated in disbelief. "You have a maniac akumatizing people and trying to get them to take your Miraculous. If you tell your little girlfriend your identity, even if she fails, guess what? Now Hawk Moth knows who you are!"

"I won't let her get akumatized." Adrien vowed.

Plagg groaned. "You know that's impossible, kid. It's bound to happen eventually. Black Cats are misfortune incarnate. At least...at least wait to tell her until _after_ she's been akumatized?"

As much as the idea was distasteful, Adrien couldn't help but agree it was a good work around.

"Anyway, three. I could keep the relationship low-key quite easily as a superhero, plus there's the cover of her making most of the merch I'd be sponsoring! As Adrien I'm monitored all the time, and I'm not going to risk causing problems for Marinette by, by asking her out with who my father is! Yeah, he commissioned her, but that could be a one off thing, Plagg! Anyway that doesn't matter because Mari's not interested in Adrien."

"Exactly." Plagg said, satisfied. "What happens when you tell her who you are?"

Adrien paled.

"Didn't think that far, did you kid?" Plagg leered.

Adrien groaned.

"Look, Plagg." He sighed, "I'm not a planner. I do things. I'm going to continue doing what I plan to do as Chat Noir and that's that. Who knows what'll happen? Maybe it won't even get to that point, and besides, I doubt she'd be _upset_ about who I am!"

"On your own head, kid." Plagg stated, shaking his own. "Just... don't be a total idiot, okay?"

* * *

 

Gabriel enjoyed the quiet hum of music in his bedchambers as he revised some of the more promising works his talent scouts had been finding.

Many assumed him a methodological man, with everything micromanaged, and to an extent they were right.

He liked to plan, he liked being organised. But sometimes, he enjoyed mystery, and the excitement of discovery.

Promising talent in the fashion industry always brought a smile to his face.

To see the next generation so hopeful, so inspired... it was wonderful to him. It was nostalgic.

But sometimes, not knowing brought problems.

Yes, his akumas.

Gabriel sighed, powering down the tablet. He tapped the black screen idly with his pointer finger.

Stoneheart was a good introduction, but the level of destruction caused... he hadn't anticipated the Ladybug Miraculous not being activated.

Then, The Bubbler. The damage he should have caused _should_ have been minimal, he had purposely aimed for one individual who would not cause havoc. Of course, against his expectations, it did.

Mathis was still jittery, and there had been a surge in counselling across Paris. Who wouldn't need it when they were far above even the birds of the city, with only a thin layer protecting them from certain death?

All it took was one aircraft...

Gabriel shuddered. He was only a beginner at using a Miraculous, much less utilising the more difficult side of corrupting its purpose.

He didn't want the destruction. He just wanted his wife back.

"How about a light hearted one next week, hm?" He murmured to himself.

Then he remembered his competition.

"A light hearted akuma _not_ from Adrien's school." Gabriel amended.

The guilt was still present. Niggling away at him.

Then, it struck. A way for him to make amends for property damage, a way to clean up the city after he engineered it's attack.

Yes, he was a terrorist. Yes, he was a villain. Yes, he was perhaps evil.

But he wasn't heartless or cruel; not yet.

"The Akuma Relief Foundation has a nice ring to it." Gabriel mused.

He'd have the Miraculouses eventually, but there was no need to destroy the city Adalicia loved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was trying to make HTML work with the chat, but alas, the changes I made which looked fine on preview refused to carry over.


End file.
